
GoiiyrightN^ 



CQRffiiCKT DEPosrr. 



A 






HISTORIC ILLINOIS 



HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

THE ROMANCE OF THE 
EARLIER DAYS 



BY 

RANDALL PARRISH 

author of 

'When Wilderness was King," "My Lady of the North,' 

AND "A Sword of the Old Frontier" 



WITH MAP AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 




CHICAGO 
A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

1905 



r4 \ 






Copyright 
A. C. McClurg & Co. 

iqo; 

Published Nov. 15, 1905 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Cooics Received 

NOV 23 1905 

_ Cooyrieht Entry 
CLASS Ck. XXc, No, 
COPY B. 



Sriif UaktBilif 13rt86 

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY 
CHICAGO 



TO THE 
MEMORY OF MY FATHER 

RUFUS PARKER PARRISH 

GENTLEMAN, PATRIOT, 
AND PIONEER 



INTRODUCTORY 

THE intention of this book is not scholastic, nor has 
any special effort been made along lines of original 
research, the single purpose being to render Illinois history 
of interest to the many who seldom discover it to be so. 
The writer believes that historical occurrences, properly 
presented, should prove more enticing than even the most 
fascinating fiction, because those men and women thus 
depicted were actual living entities. 

In the preparation of this volume no particular origi- 
nahty is claimed, other than the mode of arrangement 
chosen for the subject-matter, and an earnest effort to give 
vividness to the narrative. Like all compilations, it is the 
production, not of one mind, but of a multitude. Every 
known writer on Illinois history has been consulted in the 
endeavor to attain accuracy, yet it has not been considered 
expedient to clog the pages with continual notes of refer- 
ence. Wherever the language, or direct thought, of any 
former writer has been utilized, the endeavor has been 
made to give full acknowledgment in the text. 

The rare charm of European travel, as well as of jour- 
neying in our own Eastern States, is largely enhanced by 
the constantly recurring scenes of picturesque, historic 
interest. Comparatively few realize that no State of the 
Union surpasses Illinois in the romantic incidents of early 
days. These are full of color, action, and adventure, for 
above these peaceful plains and woods once waved the flags 
of four contending nations, while men of the white race 

vii 



viii INTRODUCTORT 

and the red strove continually for mastery. Here came 
priest and soldier, honest settler and fleeing outlaw, noble 
and peasant, coureur de bois, and Canadian voyageur, each 
bearing his part in the great struggle of two centuries. 
The continual conflict with savagery, the conspiracy of 
Pontiac, the Wars of the Revolution and of 1812, all had 
their fields of battle on Illinois soil; and there is scarcely a 
county without its romantic legends, its interesting traditions 
of the past. 

The hope of impressing some few of these happenings 
upon the minds of the many to whom historic narrative 
has heretofore proven dull and unprofitable, has been the 
main purpose of author and publisher in the volume here 
presented. 

Randall Parrish. 

Chicago, Sept. i, 1905. 



NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

The following authorities have been freely consulted, and oc- 
casionally quoted, in the preparation of this work, to each of whom 
it is desired to give full credit: "Illinois Historical Collections," 
Vol. I, and "Historical Transactions" for 1900— 1903, especially 
those articles by Dr. Snyder, Mr. John F. Steward, Mrs. Matthew 
J. Scott, and Joseph Wallace; Spears and Clark's "Mississippi 
Valley"; Dr. Thwaites's "How George Rogers Clark Won the 
Northwest," and " France in America " ; Stevens's " Black Hawk " ; 
Davidson and Stuve's " History of Illinois"; Moses's " History of 
Illinois"; Edwards's, Blanchard's, Ford's, and Reynolds's Histories ; 
Reynolds's " Story of My Own Times " ; Parkman's " La Salle and 
the Discovery of the Great West " ; Howe's " The Great West " ; 
Roosevelt's " Winning of the West " ; Mason's " Chapters from 
Illinois History"; Gould's "Fifty Years on the Mississippi"; 
McMaster's "Upper Mississippi"; Margry's '■^D'ecouvertes" \ 
Thwaites's "Hennepin's 'New Discovery'"; Thwaites's "Jesuit 
Relations"; Thwaites's "The Great River " ; as well as the 
numerous and valuable county histories, which give many interest- 
ing details otherwise overlooked by the more general writer. 

R. P. 



IX 



CONTENTS 



I Some Monuments of Lost Races ... 

II Old Indian Villages and Battle-fields: Tribal Boun- 
daries ........ 

III The First Explorers ...... 

IV La Salle and his Voyageurs in the Illinois Country 
V The Fascinating Story of Tonty 

VI The Footprints of the Friars 

VII Old Water-ways and their Voyageurs 

VIII Old Prairie Trails and their Travellers 

IX The French Settlements 

X On the Site of Maramech ; A Great Indian Tragedy 144 

XI The Spanish Invasion ; Illinois in the Revolution 

XII The Early Lead- Miners of Fever River . 

XIII Old-time Forts and their Histories 

XIV The Footsteps of George Rogers Clark 
XV Pioneer Life and Adventure along the Illinois Border 

1782-1812 .... 

XVI The Tragedy at Fort Dearborn . 

XVII Illinois in War of i 8 i 2 

XVIII The Struggle with Black Hawk . 

XIX The Mormons at Nauvoo 

XX Early American Settlements 

XXI The Story of the Capital 

XXII The Battle against Slavery 

XXIII The Code Duello . 

XXIV Some Peculiar Colonies 
XXV Humors of the Frontier 



15 

27 
41 
54 
70 
88 
102 

>i5 
129 



150 
162 

•74 
191 



207 
223 

240 
254 

271 
287 

303 
318 

333 
345 
359 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXVI Some Notable Border Characters . . . 374 

XXVII The Old-time Preachers ..... 388 

XXVIII Border Outlawry ...... 400 

XXIX The Early Steamboat Days . . . . • 414 

XXX The Coming of the Railroad .... 430 

XXXI Historic Spots as they Appear To-day . . . 443 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



Starved Rock, Tonty's Stronghold .... Frontispiece 

Indian Mounds Near Cahokia ...... 24 

Illinois River Valley Near Peoria . . . . . 32 

Statue of Marquette ........ 42 

Meeting of Marquette AND Joliet with THE "Illini " . . 48 

Death of Marquette ....... .48 

Statue of La Salle ....... . 58 

La Salle Taking Possession of the Mississippi . . . .68 

Bas-relief of Henri De Tonty ...... 76 

A "Long-robe" of the Wilderness . . . . -94 

Rock River from Black Hawk's Watch Tower . . . 106 

A Historic Water-way, the Illinois River . . . .112 

A Scene on the Frontier . . . . . . .120 

The Site of Kaskaskia . . . . . . . .132 

Ruins of Old Kaskaskia . . . . . . .138 

On the Site of Maramech . . . . . . .146 

Monument on the Site of Maramech , . . . .146 

Site of Fort Gage, from Kaskaskia . . . . . .186 

Present Aspect of the Earthworks of Old Fort Gage . . 186 

Portrait of George Rogers Clark . . . . . .198 

A Typical Log House of the Illinois Country . . . 212 

Tablet Commemorating Fort Dearborn . . . . .226 

Monument Marking the Site of the Fort Dearborn Massacre 232 
Present Aspect of Campbell's Island ..... 248 

xiii 



xiv ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Portrait of Black Hawk ....... 260 

Portrait OF Joseph Smith . . . . . . .272 

The Jail at Carthage, as It Was and as It Is . . . 276* 

House Occupied BY Joseph Smith AT Nauvoo .... 278- 

House Occupied by Brigham Young at Nauvoo , . . 278 

The Town of Nauvoo . . . . . . .282- 

Illinois Statehouse . . . . . . . 314 

Fac-simile of Underground Railway Advertisement . . .326 

Portrait of Elijah P. Lovejoy . . . . . 328 

Lovejoy Monument, Alton . . . . . . -330 

Ruins of Icarian Brewery at Nauvoo . . . . 352 - 

Colony House at Bishop Hill . . . . . • 3S^ 

A Pioneer Illinois Preacher, Peter Cartwright . . . 394 

Old Court-house at Peoria ....... 408 

Residence of Colonel Davenport, on Rock Island, where He 

was Murdered ........ 408 

Two Familiar Scenes of Pioneer Days, the Mail-coach and the 

Prairie-schooner . . . . . . . -432 

A Famous Hostelry, the Metamora House .... 438 

Last Relic of Fort Chartres ....... 444 

Present Aspect of the Site of Fort Massac .... 444 

Ruins of Riley's Mill, Near Kaskaskia ..... 448 

Residence of Pierre Menard, Near Fort Gage . . . 450 

Portrait OF John Marshall . . . . . . '452 

Residence of John Marshall, Shawneetown .... 454 



HISTORIC ILLINOIS 






Fortfjdiiiii 
T •814 






HAMILTON i "* H J->T E 



I 1;"'° \^, — ^j ^ShaSheIXowks^'-^ i, 

j UttCtlluuli 4^-^ CHaGAN'S BATmSir^ 

Y V Is '■ yS ! H * R D I N -a^ , 

.V ' ° •« i/jOHNSON jA p ,| ■ B39 j "V 

_ ^^ _ o 

rfc E t^ 



i6 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

but whether they were but a higher development of the red 
Indian race, an exodus from the semi-civilization of Central 
America, or an entirely different type now totally vanished, 
remains to be revealed. Apparently, so utterly have they 
disappeared within the enshrouding mist of that record- 
less past, their identity can never be completely estab- 
lished. 

From the comparatively few discoveries already made, 
it seems highly probable that this people were not as greatly 
advanced in civilization as the earlier investigators imagined. 
This belief tends rather to the conclusion that they were 
more likely of the red race, and not so vastly different from 
the Creeks, Natchez, and other more southern nations of 
Indians encountered first by De Soto and later by La Salle. 
Like these latter, they were also worshippers of the sun. 
The mounds, and other prehistoric earthworks, revealed by 
the investigators, were doubtless signal stations, military 
defences, tombs of the dead, remains of destroyed towns, or 
elevations erected for purposes of worship and sacrifice. 
The builders had certainly made no very marked advance 
toward higher civilization; the ruins thus far disclosed be- 
ing far behind those discovered in Central America, and but 
a grade beyond others undoubtedly of early Indian origin. 
Evidently, these people had emerged from dense savagery, 
but, at the best, had attained scarcely higher than the middle 
status of barbarism. Their religion was still the grossest 
superstition, and cruel with sacrifice; they possessed little, 
if any, knowledge of metals, never having learned their 
fusibility, a discovery which is always one of the marked 
steps of human advancement. They utilized copper as a 
malleable stone, beating it into shape with harder substances. 
In domestic and industrial arts they had attained to rather 
a higher degree of proficiency; especially is this evidenced 
in the making of pottery, and the weaving of cloth from 
vegetable fibres. Nothing distinctive appertaining to these 



SOME MONUMENTS OF LOST RJCES 17 

people has survived, excepting that certain objects, manu- 
factured from poles and canes, have been found buried in 
mounds; nearly all of their handiwork has long since passed 
into oblivion. Yet, little by little, some important facts rel- 
ative to their lives have been learned, — literally dug out 
of the earth. Their arts of subsistence had progressed as 
far as the use of salt — which was not true of the first Indians 
known to Europeans — and the cultivation of corn. This 
would seem to imply that they were no longer entirely no- 
madic, but possessed semi-permanent settlements. Their 
only known domesticated animal was the dog, and that 
probably a tamed wolf. The burdens and drudgery of do- 
mestic labor fell to the lot of the women, the chief pursuit 
of the males being war and the chase. In stature, features, 
and cranial development they did not greatly differ from 
the well-known Indian type. The hue of their skins is not 
known, and no normal specimen of their hair has been pre- 
served. The portraits transmitted to us on pottery picture 
features approximating those of the Indian, with coarse, 
straight hair. 

The culture of these Mound-builders was undoubtedly 
a slow growth from lower savagery, and it is probable that 
their antiquity is not as great as the earlier investigators sup- 
posed. The commencement of mound-building in the 
Mississippi valley can hardly be dated farther back than six 
centuries ago, nor did it entirely come to an end until after 
the discovery of this country by the Europeans. De Soto, 
very likely, on the lower Mississippi, came into direct 
contact with the surviving remnant of this same people, 
still practising all the arts, customs, and superstitions of 
their ancestors. 

There is, however, some considerable evidence to be 
found, that a yet more advanced race than even these Indian 
builders of mounds once inhabited the great valley. The 
copper mines of the Lake Superior region were extensively 



1 8 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

worked in an age far antedating all Indian tradition. At 
the Illinois Salines, fragments of pottery have been found 
from four to five feet in diameter, dug from thirty feet be- 
neath the surface. Accumulating facts would seem to 
prove beyond question that this earliest people of whom we 
can gain any positive trace were not of the modern Indian 
mould. They were short and stout, possessing low fore- 
heads and high cheek-bones, with remarkably large eyes 
and broad chins. Remains of their art even bespeak a dif- 
ferent race. Silver, iron, and copper implements have been 
unearthed, exhibiting superior skill in their construction. 
The manufacture of earthenware was one of their most 
advanced arts; vessels made of calcareous breccia have 
already been discovered, said to be equal in quality to any 
now made in Italy. Mirrors, constructed of mica brought 
from the Carolinas, are frequent, some large and even ele- 
gant in design. 

Casting aside all theory as to the nature and race of these 
differing peoples, let us note some still existing evidences of 
their former occupancy of the Illinois country. Those 
which seem directly connected with the Mound-builders are 
quite numerous and important. In form, design, dimen- 
sions, and tantalizing interest, their manufactured products 
are unsurpassed elsewhere. It is evident that their favorite 
haunts in those old days were along the principal streams 
and lakes. The shores of Lake Michigan, the bluffs of 
the Mississippi, the Ohio, Wabash, Kaskaskia, and Sanga- 
mon, are even now teeming with vestiges of their villages, 
altars, and graves. Along the valley of Rock River, ex- 
tending as far south as Kishwaukee, in Winnebago County, 
there are most curious earthworks, apparently intended to 
represent figures of men, birds, quadrupeds, reptiles, with 
others not so clearly defined. Some of these were formed 
on a gigantic scale, being more than four hundred feet in 
length. In the city of Rockford is the famous " Turtle 



SOME MONUMENTS OF LOST RACES 19 

Mound," described as " a hundred and fifty feet long by 
fifty feet in width behind its front legs; and resembles an 
alligator with its head cut off more than it does a turtle." 
No human remains having been found in any of these up- 
heavals of earth, as thus far explored, it is now believed they 
represented tribal totems, possibly signifying the extreme 
boundary of some old race. The place where the turtle's 
head, in the Rockford mound, should naturally be may 
once, as suggested by Dr. Snyder, have been occupied as a 
council-house or an altar. Such emblematic mounds as 
these are to be found only in Wisconsin, and along the upper 
Rock River in Illinois, with the exception of two or three in 
Ohio, and two in Georgia. 

Near Mendon, in Adams County, Wisconsin, is a most 
peculiar mound of this character, worthy of mention here, 
it being in the form of a gigantic serpent, or rather a series 
of small mounds so connected as to suggest this figure. In 
Illinois, from Peoria down the banks of the Illinois River, 
and thence farther down the eastern shore of the broader 
Mississippi, lies a region unsurpassed anywhere in antiquarian 
interest. Here these vanished peoples evidently dwelt in 
vast numbers during many years, carried on their varied in- 
dustries, and interred their dead. Throughout its entire 
extent this district is fairly strewn with relics of that dim, for- 
gotten past, and doubtless contains, as yet locked securely in 
its earthen heart, evidences of many different races occupy- 
ing it through indefinite periods of time. It will prove a rich 
treasure-house for the patient, scientific investigator. At 
some far-away date — how long ago no man can tell — a col- 
ony of the "stone-grave people," probably journeying from 
the valley of the Cumberland, came into Illinois and settled 
near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. From 
this point they gradually spread northward until they reached 
the present county of Monroe, where they evidently made an 
extended residence, but finally crossed the Mississippi and 



20 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

settled in Eastern Missouri. They left behind them a plain 
and unmistakable trail by their peculiar manner of burying 
their dead. This was in stone cists, or graves lined and 
covered with thin rough flagstones. Usually the bodies are 
found resting in their last sleep alone, but occasionally sev- 
eral were buried together, all enclosed within a mound of 
earth. Such graves have been discovered as far north as 
the Sangamon River, but are most numerous throughout the 
extreme southern portion of the State. In the main, this 
peculiar form of sepulchre is identical with that discovered 
in the ancient cemetery near Nashville, Tennessee, and this 
tribe, emigrating to Illinois in that far-away age, was un- 
doubtedly a branch of the same ancient stock. Plates of thin, 
hammered copper, with strangely masked human figures 
impressed upon them, have been found in these Southern 
Illinois graves, greatly resembling similar discoveries in the 
famous Etowah mound of Georgia. So exactly do these re- 
semble the early art of Central America, and that of the Aztec 
dynasty in Mexico, as to make it probable these " stone-grave 
people " were at least in direct communication with that 
ancient semi-civilization far to the southward. An im- 
pressed copper plate, bearing the well-executed design of an 
eagle, was discovered in a mound near Peoria, far in artistic 
advance of the best efforts of the Indian mound-builders. 

A singular monument of this latter race is found in the 
lead region, situated at the summit of a ridge, near the east 
bank of Sinsinawa Creek. It has the appearance of a huge 
animal, the head, ears, nose, legs, and tail, as well as the 
general outlines, being as perfectly conceived as if made by 
men versed in modern art. The ridge on which it has been 
upbuilt tops an open prairie, and stands three hundred feet 
wide, one hundred feet in height, and rounded off at the top 
by a thick deposit of clay. Centrally, along the line of the 
summit, is an embankment, three feet high, forming the out- 
line of a quadruped measuring two hundred and fifty feet from 



SOME MONUMENTS OF LOST RACES 21 

tip of the nose to end of the tail, and having, at the centre, 
a width of body of eighteen feet. The head was thirty-five 
feet long, the ears ten, legs sixty, and tail seventy-five. The 
curvature of the limbs was natural to an animal lying upon 
its side. In general, the figure resembles the now extinct 
quadruped known to science as the megatherium. Many 
scientists believe this animal actually lived in and roamed over 
the Illinois plains when these ancient Mound-builders first 
entered the valley of the Mississippi, and that this outline 
was later drawn from memory. As a curious coincidence, 
it may be stated that bones of some similar gigantic creatures 
have been exhumed on this same stream, not more than 
three miles distant. 

In the upper portion of the American Bottom, nearly op- 
posite the city of St. Louis, and some fifty miles above the 
stone-grave cemeteries of Monroe County, was the settle- 
ment of yet another distinct branch of pre-Columbian people. 
These are known to moderns as the "Temple" Mound- 
builders. Their chief work in the Illinois country is the 
famous Cahokia mound, probably the largest in the United 
States. It is situated six miles and a half northeast of St. 
Louis, is ninety-seven feet in height, with a base seven hun- 
dred feet in length by five hundred feet in width, covering 
more than six acres, and comprising in its solid contents 
1,076,000 cubic yards of earth, the greater portion of which 
was taken from the bluffs three miles distant. This gigantic 
monument of a vanished race is commonly known as the 
"Monks' Mound," from the monks of La Trappe having 
settled on and about it. In shape it is an irregular oblong, 
extending north and south, with its shorter sides east and 
west. Its top contains about three and a fourth acres, 
while nearly half-way down the sides is a terrace, extending 
the entire width of the mound, and sufficiently broad to 
afford sites for several spacious buildings. The present 
irregularity in outline is doubtless due to the washing of 



22 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

heavy rains, thus changing materially the original design. A 
Mr. Hill, who once lived upon it, while making excavation 
near the northwest extremity uncovered human bones and 
white pottery in considerable quantities. The bones, 
which instantly crumbled to dust on exposure to the air, ap- 
peared larger than ordinary, while the teeth were double in 
front as well as behind. 

Nor does this huge mound stand alone. It is seemingly 
the king of many others of similar construction but less 
magnitude, and the entire section must at one time have been 
densely populated, if merely by the workmen employed on 
this gigantic task of mound-building. Close at hand, sixty- 
one smaller mounds have been counted, ranging in size from 
fifty to four hundred feet in diameter, and from fifteen to 
sixty feet in height. Wherever one journeys in this region, 
such mounds appear. Fifteen miles east of this spot, on 
the border of a high open prairie in St. Clair County, 
rises a most beautiful and symmetrical mound, known lo- 
cally as the "Emerald Mound." It is a truncated pyramid 
with square base, each side two hundred and twenty-five 
feet in length, forty feet in elevation, while its level top, ex- 
actly corresponding in form with its base, is one hundred 
and fifty feet square. Its lines and angles have been well 
preserved, and are yet sharply defined and regular. Only a 
few yards distant, to the northeast, is a smaller circular 
mound, having a flat top, while eight hundred feet from its 
west angle is a long ridge, undoubtedly of artificial con- 
struction, and possibly sepulchral. 

Near the base of the Emerald Mound there have been 
found sixteen large flint spades, polished by long use. Near 
the present business centre of East St. Louis, a number of 
these were also unearthed, together with several flint hoes, 
most neatly finished. These, with other relics dug from 
the earth, such as artistic pottery, fine polished stone imple- 
ments, shell beads, tortoise shells, parts of the lower jaws of 



SOME MONUMENTS OF LOST RACES 23 

deer with incisor teeth intact, and some objects exquisitely 
plated with thin sheets of copper, attest the advance in cul- 
ture of these Cahokia Mound-builders, as well as their indus- 
trial progress. In their system of earthworks there is a 
marked similarity to those. of Eastern Arkansas, Mississippi, 
and Georgia, and in all probability they were a branch of 
the same people. Where, and how, they disposed of their 
dead has not yet been ascertained. 

The entire valley of the Illinois River from Starved Rock 
to the Mississippi was, unknown ages ago, the home of a 
still different race from any yet enumerated. Their style of 
mound-building and their method of disposing of their dead 
connect them plainly with the well-known Mound-builders 
of the East. Here are to be found numerous examples of 
the "altar" mounds, usually elevated above the low alluvial 
bottom land bordering the stream. Here are also uncov- 
ered vast quantities of "platform" pipes, together with 
finely wrought implements of war and chase, with orna- 
ments of copper. In this same neighborhood have been 
unearthed a vast number of relics, evidently propitiatory 
offerings to some deity. Dr. J. F. Snyder, whose valuable 
contributions to the State Historical Society have yielded me 
much data, describes the discovery of immense deposits of 
dark-colored, or black, flint disks, from three to eight inches 
in diameter, under conditions leaving no doubt as to their 
sacrificial intent. Buried in the river bank at Beardstown 
he found fifteen hundred well-finished disks of black horn- 
stone closely laid together, which were uncovered a few feet 
below the surface. A deposit of thirty-five hundred similar 
flints was found four miles above, on the opposite side of 
the river. Two very large mounds standing side by side, in 
Brown County, were opened. One produced 6,199 of these 
oval disks, and the other 5,316 complete lance-shaped instru- 
ments from three to eight inches in length. A noteworthy 
point regarding this find is, such black flint is nowhere 



24 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

discovered in situ in Illinois, but occurs in Southeastern 
Indiana and some portions of Kentucky. These thousands 
of buried flints must have been transported, either overland 
or by means of water-w^ays, to their present burial-spots 
with immense toil and sacrifice. 

Every evidence is present that the Mound-builders main- 
tained a very widely extended system of barter with distant 
races. " In these mounds along the Illinois," writes Snyder, 
"are to be found marine shells from the Gulf of Mexico; 
copper from Lake Superior; catlinite from the pipestone 
ledges of Minnesota; obsidian from New Mexico or the 
Rocky Mountains; mica from North Carolina; and hematite 
and galena from Southeast Missouri or the upper Missis- 
sippi." The age of these " altar " mounds remains a problem 
unsolved, but beyond doubt the builders had not yet be- 
come skilled in the ceramic art, one of the earliest usually 
mastered by aborigines. The few pottery vessels found are 
coarse, rude, and without noticeable artistic decoration. 
The human skeletons discovered in these earth-banks exhibit 
anatomical characteristics of a very low order. Their crania 
were similar to those of the lower American Indian type, 
but with a wide variation of facial angle. They possessed 
low, narrow, and retreating foreheads, having a general 
appearance that was ape-like and hideous, yet these people 
developed into exceedingly skilful artisans. 

Early white settlers were surprised to discover — espe- 
cially in Gallatin County — evidences of salt-production in 
very ancient times. All about the saline springs in the 
southern portion of the State were found fragments of huge, 
shallow, earthenware vessels, with fire-scarred stones and 
camp-refuse, indicating that the early method of obtaining 
salt was by evaporation. Near by were extensive cemeteries, 
the bodies of the dead lying in stone-lined graves, thus appar- 
ently identifying them clearly with the stone-cist people of 
the American Bottom. This ancient use of salt would seem 





INDIAN MOUNDS NEAR CAHOKIA 



TRACES OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS 



SOME MONUMENTS OF LOST RACES 25 

to separate this race widely from the known Indian tribes 
subsequently occupying this territory, as the liking for salt 
was with the early Indians an acquired taste. The Potta- 
wattomies, and indeed all the tribes north and west of Lake 
Michigan, when first visited by French explorers, are re- 
ported to have regarded salt with great disgust, believing it 
a poison. This was also true regarding the nomads of the 
western plains and Rocky Mountain region as late as the 
Fremont expedition. Yet, in far more ancient times — hun- 
dreds of years, it may be, before the first white man floated 
down La Belle Riviere — these salt-makers were laboring to 
supply a vast population, which has forever vanished. 

In this brief review, we have not touched the existing 
evidences of a yet more ancient people, a people dating so 
far back that the mind fails to comprehend the vast distance 
of time intervening. This Illinois country has still much 
to offer to antiquarian and archaeologist which may some 
day proclaim it as one of the earliest-settled portions of 
the earth's surface. Comparatively little investigation has 
been made, but that little points to an antiquity of popula- 
tion before which the mind halts aghast. In the glacial 
drift underlying Chicago, flint implements of the true Palaeo- 
lithic age have already been found. " This would imply," 
writes Snyder, "the presence of man on that spot as long ago 
as the Glacial or Interglacial epochs. Much more remains to 
be explored throughout the State, with every probability of 
important discoveries. Ancient moraines, and other glacial 
deposits, are predominant features of our surface geology, 
and hold many a secret locked from sight, yet to be revealed 
to the scientific investigator. Primitive man, it is now gener- 
ally conceded, had already attained to the Neolithic stage of 
stone art at the period of his first arrival here. It remains 
to be discovered, through diligent research of the clay and 
gravel beds of Illinois, new and clearer conceptions of these 
earliest inhabitants. Possibly, evidences may be unearthed 



26 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

which will carry the primitive American back to that im- 
mensely distant period of the Quaternary deposits." As 
it is, time can scarcely be reckoned in considering the ages 
in which human life has found existence along the rivers 
of the State. Again and again has this land been trodden by 
different races, cities have risen and fallen, and great peoples 
have vanished utterly, leaving behind them no record of exist- 
ence, except their voiceless graves. 



CHAPTER II 

OLD INDIAN VILLAGES AND BATTLE-FIELDS — 
TRIBAL BOUNDARIES 

WHEN the first white man, floating down the bosom of 
the majestic Mississippi, finally landed and placed 
adventurous foot upon the soil of Illinois, this was entirely 
the country of the Indian. In its virgin wilderness beauty, 
it would be difficult to imagine a more magnificent domain. 
Nature had done her part, and had been most prodigal with 
her bounties. No dark and brooding forest shrouded the 
landscape, as was the case farther eastward; no forbidding 
mountain-masses frowningly denied easy access. Here the 
green and brown prairies smiled cheerfully back to the sun, 
beautified by countless wild flowers, with scattered groves 
dotting their wide expanse, and everywhere diversified by 
sparkling water-courses. Outwardly, it was as the Garden 
of Eden, a vast park designed by the one Great Architect, 
and beautified by His genius. A magnificent river swept 
majestically along its western boundary, while one scarcely 
less important divided it in twain. 

Yet, fair as was the prospect from the summit of any hill- 
top, it was the rough beauty of untamed wilderness. Noth- 
ing disturbed the dead monotony of hill and dale, plain and 
woodland, excepting a few scattered and dirty villages with 
their savage inmates. The unbroken prairies were browsed 
over by countless herds of buff^alo, while in the dark coverts 
of the woods bears lurked in search of prey, and the timid 
deer skulked, affrighted by the slightest sound. From vil- 
lage to village ran snake-like trails, along which the solitary 

hunter stole like a shadow, or some fierce party of bedecked 

27 



28 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

warriors passed swiftly in search of their enemies. It was 
indeed a scene of nature, untouched as yet by the artificial 
restraints of civilization, wild, lonely, savagely beautiful, but 
in no sense was it anywhere a scene of prosperity or peace. 

Want and suffering were constant visitants in these black 
wigwams — improvidence ever stalking a grim skeleton 
through months of cruel Winter, — while death and torture 
haunted each mile of the dim trails. It was everywhere war, 
cruel, devastating, cowardly, — war in which men, women, 
and children perished like flies beneath the war-club and the 
tomahawk. What races may have dominated these plains 
and valleys — whence they came, whither they passed away 
— in those lost centuries, is to-day beyond conjecture. But 
we know enough to write with calm certainty that whatever 
may have been the names of the tribes and peoples holding 
this fair hunting-ground, they accomplished it through force 
of arms, and were, each in turn, compelled to yield it up unto 
a stronger. There was no cessation in the struggle; it had 
been centuries long, and would continue while savagery 
held mastership. When the first white explorer came, drift- 
ing along those inviting water-ways from the north and east, 
he discovered here people of the Algonquin race. "They 
were of a great family of savages," comments Parkman, "at 
one time occupying nearly all of the United States between 
the thirty-fifth and sixtieth parallels of latitude, and the six- 
tieth and one hundred and fifth meridians of longitude. 
Those were Algonquins whom Cartier found on the banks 
of the St. Lawrence, whom the English discovered hi^nting 
and fishing along the Atlantic coast from Maine to the Caro- 
linas." And they were men of this same lineage who first 
greeted the Jesuit Marquette upon the banks of this far-off 
Mississippi. How they originally came here we may never 
know with certainty, nor what other people they dispossessed 
in order to gain these hunting-grounds. Yet, there they were 
in that year of earliest white discovery, 1673, squeezed 



INDIAN VILLAGES AND BATTLE-FIELDS 29 

in between the encroaching Sioux upon the west, and 
the raiding Iroquois upon the east, barely holding their own 
in the unequal struggle, their day of exile already near at 
hand. 

To Marquette these first Indians with whom he met, near 
the mouth of the Des Moines River, spoke of themselves as 
the "Illini." Literally interpreted, this simply meant that 
they were men, the term being used to distinguish them- 
selves from their rapacious enemies, the Iroquois, whom 
they were accustomed to designate as beasts. Yet from 
that hour this particular confederation of Algonquin tribes 
has been known in both French and English records as 
the Illinois. They had long been, and were still, a powerful 
people, the five tribes composing the confederation being the 
Tamaroas, Michigamies, Kaskaskias, Cahokias, and Peorias. 
These tribes, thus loosely banded together in an Indian alli- 
ance for purposes of defence, claimed and yet held for their 
special hunting-grounds all that country bounded on the 
east by the ridge dividing the waters flowing into the Illinois 
from those flowing into the Wabash, between the head wa- 
ters of Saline Creek, and extending as far north as the debat- 
able ground between them and their nearest encroaching 
neighbors, the Sacs and Foxes, Winnebagoes, and Kickapoos. 
In other words, their territory may roughly be said to have 
extended from a line drawn directly southward from the 
junction of the Des Plaines River with the Illinois to a point 
on the Ohio about where Golconda now stands, extending 
westward to the banks of the Mississippi, and northwest- 
ward as far as Rock River. Their favorite and most popu- 
lous villages were situated upon the Illinois, the Des Plaines, 
and the lower Kankakee. Marquette describes their prin- 
cipal town as being situated upon the bank of the Illinois 
River, seven miles below the present city of Ottawa. It was 
then called Kaskaskia, and contained seventy-four lodges. 
In 1679, six years later, according to the reports of Henne- 



30 



HISTORIC ILLINOIS 



pin, it had four hundred and sixty lodges, with a total 
population of from six to eight thousand. These lodges 
extended along the river for fully a mile, and the Indians 
cultivated the adjacent meadows, raising crops of pumpkins, 
beans, and Indian corn. Father Rasles mentions ten or 
twelve other smaller villages, scattered throughout their 
territory. The exact position of very few of these can be 
traced, although it is known that in 1680 there were Illinois 
villages five miles below the site of Peoria, and others very 
nearly where the city of Beardstown now stands. In 1697 
there was one in the immediate neighborhood of Spring 
Bay, and a very old Indian village, probably of this same 
people, stood slightly south of the present town of Toulon, 
in Stark County. If these latter were the Illinois, then this 
spot must have marked the extreme limit of their perma- 
nent residence, for Henry and Bureau Counties were, even 
at this time, hunted over by bands of Kickapoo warriors. 

The remaining portions of the State were at this date occu- 
pied by the following Indian tribes: East of the central di- 
viding ridge, or water-shed, were three branches of the Miami 
confederation, the Weamiamies having their hunting-grounds 
in Cook and Lake Counties, the Miamis proper, the country 
lying closely along the Indiana state line north of Danville, 
and the Piankishaws the country extending from that point 
south to the Ohio. This latter tribe was the only one of the 
three to retain possession for any length of time, the others 
being early forced eastward by the encroachments of other 
tribes from the north. The Kickapoos were in the extreme 
northwest, their southern limit being Rock River. Just 
across the Wisconsin line, in the country adjacent to the 
great lake, were scattered the Pottawattomies, who were 
slowly but resistlessly pressing southward. 

It is hard to conceive of a more pathetic story than that 
revealed in the fate of the Illinois. Less than a year after 
La Salle first visited them, the Iroquois made a sudden raid 



INDIAN VILLAGES AND BATTLE-FIELDS 31 

into their territory, captured and burned their principal town 
near Ottawa, and drove the confederated tribes down the 
river as far as the Mississippi. Here the Tamaroas were 
overtaken by their merciless pursuers, a large number of 
warriors killed, and seven hundred of their women and 
children taken prisoners. Many of these were burned at 
the stake, or cruelly tortured, until, their fierce passions 
satiated, the invading savages finally returned eastward, 
bearing with them into slavery those who remained alive. 
With this withdrawal of the enemy the survivors of the 
scattered and disheartened Illinois tribes began slowly 
drifting back to the neighborhood of their old home, and, 
uniting together, partially rebuilt their destroyed town. In 
1682, when La Salle collected his Indian colony about Fort 
St. Louis (Starved Rock), the Illinois furnished twelve 
hundred of the total of thirty-eight hundred warriors 
thus banded together in defence under French protection. 

Their safety, which then seemed assured, was, however, 
but short-lived. La Salle's purposes of exploration, his 
lack of available men for suitable garrisons, and the jeal- 
ousies in Canada which tied his hands, resulted in the neces- 
sity of his finally leaving these Indians to their fate. Nor 
was it long in coming. The savage Iroquois, busied with 
war in their own territory, did not return in force to com- 
plete their bloody work on the Illinois prairies, but other 
enemies were numerous, aggressive, and scarcely less cruel. 
The Sacs and Foxes from west of the Mississippi, the Kick- 
apoos from beyond Rock River, and the Pottawattomies 
from Southern Wisconsin, all alike eager to gain possession 
of these superb hunting-grounds, swarmed down in merciless 
raids upon the dispirited remnant of the Illinois. Some re- 
sistance was attempted, and the Foxes were defeated in two 
severe battles at Starved Rock and near the Peoria Lake, los- 
ing more than a hundred warriors. But the Illinois tribes- 
men were not the fighters they had once been, and little 



32 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

by little they abandoned the country. Peoria, Cahokia, and 
Kaskaskia became centres for the tribes bearing these names. 
TheTamaroas amalgamated themselves with the Kaskaskias, 
while the Michigamies located near Fort Chartres. By the 
year 1736 these were nearly all gathered in the immediate 
vicinity of the little French settlements on the Mississippi, 
and numbered in warriors as follows: Michigamies, 250; 
Kaskaskias, 100; Peorias, 50; Cahokias and Tamaroas, 200, 
— making a total of 600 fighting men. Considering that 
only fifty-seven years before this same people numbered 
twelve thousand souls, with large prosperous villages and 
a hunting-ground covering fully two-thirds of the State, the 
suffering and barbarity of those early times can be some- 
what comprehended. 

Nor were their misfortunes as yet at an end. In common 
with all other western tribes, they became involved in the 
conspiracy of Pontiac, but apparently were unwilling to take 
active part in the field. When that great chief visited them 
in 1764 to make his final appeal, their zeal did not meet his 
desires, and he told them that if they hesitated longer he 
"would consume their tribes as fire consumes the dry grass 
on the prairies." After Pontiac's final defeat, he fled for 
refuge to Illinois, and was killed by an Indian at Cahokia. 
This act was laid to that tribe, — whether rightfully or wrong- 
fully has never been established, — and greatly angered the 
Indian nations who for so long had been loyal to the great 
chieftain. They swarmed down from the north and the east, 
eager to avenge his death, and almost annihilated the tribes 
of the Illinois. Tradition states that a band of these fugi- 
tives, seeking to escape the general slaughter, finally took 
refuge on the summit of that high rock which had been the 
site of Fort St. Louis. There they were besieged by an over- 
whelming force of Pottawattomies, which the great strength 
of this natural fortress enabled them easily to keep at bay. 
But hunger and thirst united to defeat them, when the savage 



INDIAN VILLAGES AND BATTLE-FIELDS 33 

foe could not. Their small quantity of provisions quickly 
failed, and their supply of water was stopped by the enemy 
severing the cords attached to the vessels with which they 
elevated it from the river below. Thus surrounded by re- 
lentless avengers, they took one last lingering look at their 
beautiful hunting-grounds, spread out like a panorama along 
the gently rolling river beneath them, and then with true 
Indian fortitude laid themselves down, and expired without 
a sigh or a tear. Their tragic fate has given to this lofty 
citadel the name of Starved Rock; many years afterward 
their bones were seen whitening on its summit. The Tama- 
roas, while not entirely exterminated, lost their identity 
as a separate tribe, in a fierce battle with the Shawnees fought 
near the eastern limits of Randolph County; and at the con- 
clusion of this avenging war the entire confederation of the 
Illinois had been reduced to two tribes, the Kaskaskias and 
Peorias. Together they could muster but a hundred and 
fifty warriors. In the year 1850, when the remnant was re- 
moved from its old home to the Indian Territory, only 
eighty-four of the race were found. 

Let us turn again to the map, and note those changes 
which less than a hundred years of savage, relentless war 
had wrought in this Indian-haunted land. It is 1765; the 
wasted remnant of the once powerful Illinois confederacy 
are now huddled, fear-stricken, and broken of spirit, about 
the French settlements on the Mississippi, occupying as a 
hunting-ground the present counties of Madison, St. Clair, 
Monroe, and Randolph. The Piankishaws have mean- 
while spread their boundaries slightly toward the west, having 
obtained control of the Mississippi, south of the Randolph 
County line, but the warlike Shawnees, pouring in from the 
east, have won from them a considerable strip along the 
Wabash and Ohio, probably most of White, Hamilton, Galla- 
tin, Pope, Saline, and Massac Counties. Farther north, even 
a greater change is noticeable. The northern Miamis have 



34 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

been driven westward beyond the State limits by an inroad 
of Pottawattomies from Wisconsin. These latter have swept 
entirely around the head of the great lake, and have 
spread out across the prairies as far south as the Kankakee. 
Pressed forward by the invading Sacs and Foxes, the Kick- 
apoos have crossed Rock River and taken possession of the 
deserted lands of the Illinois, ranging throughout the entire 
central portion of the State. Close behind them the Sacs and 
Foxes have pushed their way, until they now control all that 
country lying west and north of the Illinois River. 

As late as 1812 these same Indian tribes divided the State 
between them, but the boundaries of their possessions had 
changed. The Piankishaws had been pressed eastward, 
merely retaining a small section along the upper waters of 
the Wabash. The Pottawattomies had driven the Kicka- 
poos yet farther south, taking to themselves the central por- 
tion of the State, and compelling the Sacs and Foxes to retire 
north of Rock River. Here these latter were somewhat 
closely hemmed in by an entering wedge of Winnebagoes 
from Wisconsin. The Kickapoo hunting-grounds were 
nearly as extensive as before, but had been changed to the 
southwestern counties of the State. A brief sketch of these 
tribes so intimately connected with the early history of Illi- 
nois will be found full of interest, and of the unspeakable 
pathos of Indian life. 

More than all the others combined, the Kickapoos served 
to retard the advance of white settlement. From the earliest 
days, their bitter hatred of the encroaching race was implac- 
able, and they were ever a powerful and fierce tribe. Their 
historical records run back to the first occupation of the St. 
Lawrence valley by the French. Champlain found them 
along the shores of Lake Huron. From that early day they 
proved an untractable people, never forming any lasting alli- 
ance with either the French or the English. They reached 
Rock River from the north about the same time as the first 



INDIAN VILLAGES AND BATTLE-FIELDS 35 

white explorers of Illinois, and from that date remained 
prominent in all the savage warfare incident to early coloni- 
zation, roaming at different periods over nearly every county 
within the present limits of the State. They were more civ- 
ilized, industrious, energetic, and cleanly than their neigh- 
bors, but equally cruel, treacherous, and unforgiving. They 
were always among the first to commence war, the last to 
submit and enter into treaties. They were in the field against 
Generals Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne, and were leaders 
in all the bloody charges at Tippecanoe. For many years 
they harassed the exposed settlements, and were long the 
terror of the Illinois frontier. When finally removed from 
the limits of the State, they yet retained their old animosity 
against Americans, retiring to Texas, then a province of 
Mexico, rather than remain on United States territory. It 
is impossible to estimate the number of warriors composing 
this tribe in the days of their power, but it is evident from the 
country controlled by them, as well as the number and im- 
portance of their villages, that they must have formed a 
large fighting force. Their principal towns were located on 
Kickapoo Creek, and at Elkhart Grove. 

The Piankishaws, while never making any great impress 
on early Illinois history, yet occupied for some years much 
of its territory. They held membership in the Miami con- 
federation, and hunted over that country lying to the west- 
ward of the Wabash, as far as the dividing ridge, and at one 
time attained to the Mississippi. They were more largely 
represented in La Salle's colony at Fort St. Louis than any 
other one tribe, and later took active part in the conspiracy 
of Pontiac. Within the knowledge of white men, they held 
place on Illinois soil for two hundred years. Like the other 
original Illinois tribes, they were constantly harassed by the 
raiding Iroquois, and finally were crushed between the in- 
vading Kickapoos and Shawnees, and thus forced across the 
State boundaries. They were but seldom mentioned in the 



36 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

early records as being connected with raids on the white set- 
tlers. When removed to Indian Territory in 1850, their 
pitiful remnant numbered but one hundred and seven 
persons. 

The Mascoutins were a tribe holding close relationship to 
the Illinois confederation, and are believed to have occupied 
some portion of the State for brief intervals. Marquette met 
them in 1673, ^^^^ ^^^ portage of the Fox and Wisconsin 
Rivers; and Marest states that in 17 12 they had settlements 
on the Wabash, and later ranged over the prairies between 
there and the Illinois River. They became associated, and 
finally absorbed, with both the Foxes and the Kickapoos, 
whom they resembled in deceit and treachery. Charlevoix 
states that they, with the Kickapoos and Foxes as confede- 
rates, formed a plot against the French, but before it could be 
consummated were surprised by a band of Ottawas and 
Pottawattomies, with the result that one hundred and 
fifty of them were destroyed. After the surrender of the 
French possessions to the English, Colonel Croghan was sent 
to conciliate the western tribes. Having descended the 
Ohio to a point a little below Shawneetown, the Mascoutins, 
together with some Kickapoos, attacked and made him and 
his men prisoners. Under the name of Meadow Indians, 
they were mentioned by General Clark, whom they endeav- 
ored to surprise by treachery in 1778. 

The Sacs and Foxes, except in raiding parties, were prob- 
ably never south of the Illinois River, nor did they for any 
considerable length of time exercise control over the country 
lying between that river and the Rock. But throughout 
the entire northwestern portion of the State they enter largely 
into its early history, while during the Black Hawk War their 
fame became national. While originally composing two 
separate tribes, they had, by long residence together and 
intermarriage, become practically one people. Both tribes 
came from the St, Lawrence, in the neighborhood of Quebec 



INDIAN VILLAGES AND BATTLE-FIELDS 37 

and Montreal, the Foxes being the earliest to emigrate, mak- 
ing a new home for themselves on the banks of that river 
in Wisconsin v^hich has ever since borne their name. A 
bloody and disastrous war with the Iroquois soon induced 
the Sacs to join them, when, for mutual protection against 
the surrounding savages, they united as one nation. Mov- 
ing steadily southward, they finally gained foothold in north- 
western Illinois by driving out the Sauteurs, a branch of the 
Chippewas, who then held possession. It is said that in 
the course of this migration they also had a severe battle with 
the Mascoutins, nearly opposite the mouth of the Iowa River, 
in which the latter were not only defeated but almost extermi- 
nated. Having thus conquered the country, they established 
their chief village near the mouth of Rock River, occupy- 
ing a high bluff overlooking the present town of Milan, now 
known as Black Hawk's Watch Tower. They also had several 
smaller villages on the west side of the Mississippi. They 
were almost constantly at war, both offensive and defensive, 
with the Sioux, Pawnees, Osages, and Kickapoos, nor in any 
of these fierce and savage conflicts were they found deficient 
in courage. In the struggle of 1 8 1 2 they took active part upon 
the British side and rendered good service, defeating and 
driving back every American expedition despatched into their 
country. Later, in the Black Hawk War, although defeated 
and literally cut to pieces by overwhelming numbers, their 
old reputation as hard fighters was abundantly sustained. 
In the year 1805 their numbers were given as follows: Sacs, 
2,850, of whom 700 were warriors; Foxes, 1,750, of whom 400 
were warriors. In 1825 the total number in the two tribes 
was reported at 4,600. When finally transferred to Indian 
Territory, they numbered only 1,600. These tribes possessed 
one very peculiar custom, unnoted anywhere else in Indian 
life. Each male child at birth was marked with either 
black or white paint, the mother being extremely careful 
to apply the two colors alternately, so that each family, and 



38 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

the entire nation, might be thus divided into two nearly 
equal classes, the blacks and the whites. The object of 
these distinctive marks, which were retained through life, 
was to keep alive a constant spirit of emulation in the tribe. 
In their games, hunts, and public ceremonies, the blacks 
were always the competitors of the whites, while in war each 
party was ambitious to take more scalps than the other. 

The Pottawattomies were for a long period a power in the 
Illinois country. They originally fought their way in along 
the shore of Lake Michigan, and then, battling constantly, 
drove back the struggling Kickapoos beyond the Sangamon, 
and forced the fierce Sacs and Foxes to retire behind the 
Rock, while they promptly annexed all the hunting-grounds 
lying between. On the earlier French maps the principal 
village of this people was situated at the mouth of the St. 
Joseph River, in Michigan. Here for more than half a cen- 
tury Jesuit priests labored with them, but apparently to little 
avail. During Pontiac's War, disguising their object under 
a mask of friendship, they attacked the small English garri- 
son stationed there, and killed all but three men. In Illinois, 
some years later, they were the principal participants in the 
massacre at Fort Dearborn, one of the most atrocious acts of 
treachery in the annals of the Northwest. Portions of both 
the Chippewa and Ottawa tribes were closely associated 
with them during their career in Illinois. The Sauteurs, of 
the Chippewa branch, at an early date dwelt along the east- 
ern bank of the Mississippi, having villages at Rock Island 
and Quincy. Driven out by the Sacs and Foxes, they crossed 
the river, and built a new town on the present site of Daven- 
port. The Pottawattomies were among the most energetic 
and powerful of the Indian tribes of the Northwest, and 
fought with savage ferocity in all the wars along the border. 
At Detroit, Mackinaw, and other British posts, in Pontiac's 
time, they were without rivals in the work of carnage and 
death. They were the last native tribe to take their depart- 



INDIAN VILLAGES AND BATTLE-FIELDS 39 

ure from Illinois, lingering about Chicago until 1835. In 
1850, in the Indian Territory, they numbered 1,500, many 
of them prosperous, and all seemingly more ambitious than 
Indians of other stock. 

Two other tribes require consideration in this connection. 
For some years a fragment of the Shawnee nation dwelt in 
the southeastern portion of the State, their principal village 
being Shawneetown, in Gallatin County, on the Ohio River. 
They were a bold, roving, adventurous people, who had 
fought their way eastward from the Atlantic coast. Con- 
stantly in broils, their stay in Illinois was a bloody one. Dur- 
ing the French and Indian War, they obtained arms from the 
French, and overran the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Vir- 
ginia. So atrocious had been their conduct, that when the 
war was over they supposed themselves excluded from the 
general amnesty, and prepared to murder their prisoners 
and fight to the death. Just before the coming of Clark, 
they exterminated the Tamaroas and moved eastward out of 
the State. They fought battles with the Kickapoos and 
the Piankishaws in order to hold their territory. The Winne- 
bagoes were another tribe who gained a foothold in Illinois, 
pushing down in wedge-like form from Wisconsin between 
the Sacs and Foxes and Pottawattomies, occupying the 
county which now bears their name and some territory 
adjacent to it upon the east. They took part, although in a 
small way, in the harassing of early American settlements, 
even assailing a steamboat on the Mississippi as late as 
1827. ^^ ^^ supposed that they had formerly lived in Illinois, 
their traditions stating that their ancestors had built a fort 
there, which some authorities connect with the archaeological 
remains of an ancient work found on Rock River. 

This, in brief, is the Indian record of Illinois since the 
coming of white men. Similar scenes of savage war and 
desolation, of exterminated tribes and decimated nations, 
undoubtedly extend back for hundreds of years previous. 



40 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

For many centuries Illinois had been a battle-ground, a bone 
of contention among the red men. Hardly a foot of its 
territory but has witnessed scenes of savage atrocity before 
which the civilized mind shrinks in horror. From the com- 
ing of the first Frenchman, it yet continued a place of struggle 
for nearly three hundred years, until the Indian was finally 
banished beyond its borders. Red against red, red against 
white, and white against white battled almost unceasingly, 
until scarcely a county but has its memory, scarcely a spot 
remains without its associations of war. The prairies have 
drunk of human blood, and the streams have run red with 
sacrifice. 



CHAPTER III 

THE FIRST EXPLORERS 

WHO was the first white man to set foot upon the soil 
of Illinois will probably remain forever unknown. 
It may have been some wandering coureur de hois, some 
adventurous fur trader, scarcely more civilized than those sav-' 
ages among whom he dwelt, and whose life finally went out 
unmissed in the dark forests, or upon the desolate prairies. It 
may have been La Salle, during that mysterious year which 
has disappeared from his history, when rumor says he crossed 
from the shores of the great lake to the banks of the Des 
Plaines. Whoever it may have been, the world was no wiser 
for his discoveries, and hence the honor of first explorer can- 
not justly be accorded him. 

Stand near the head of the little island breasting the down- 
ward sweep of the vast Mississippi, and look about you. It 
lies opposite where the present dividing line between Illinois 
and Wisconsin touches the eastern river bank. It is the i8th 
of June, 1673. This is the heart of the wilderness. Hun- 
dreds of miles to the northeast, a little stockade of logs shelters 
a Jesuit priest or two, while, east of that point, scattered 
here and there amid the surrounding desolation, are others 
similar, the merest isolated sentinels of French occupancy, 
stretching a thin line of communication through thousands 
of leagues of Indian-haunted forests to the far-off St. Law- 
rence. Everywhere is the brooding silence, everywhere 
absence of human activity. The trees bordering the streams 
are filled with birds; the rice-swamps are vocal; out on the 
open prairies range the buffalo and the deer. Down in some 
valley hides an Indian village, dark, forbidding, ever fearful 

41 



42 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

of the bursting upon it of cruel, savage foes. Dim trails 
wind sinuously from point to point for guidance to the 
hunter or the war party, but for league on league in every 
direction of the compass expands that same unvexed vista 
of silent plain and mysterious forest. 

Nothing moves along the glistening surface of the great 
river. In solitary grandeur it pours its mighty flood through 
the wilderness, as it has done for unknown centuries. Past 
forest and grove and prairie its murmuring waters run, by 
thickets and marshes and silent islands, rippling gently over 
broad sand-bars, and swirling back at the dark trees high 
above on some bold blufi^. It is the monarch of all this mys- 
terious land — the unnamed ruler upon whose bosom no 
white man's keel has ever made impress. But the hour has 
now dawned for the unlocking of the great secret, and around 
that distant curve steal silently two birch canoes, their ad- 
venturous prows turned southward, their occupants of the 
white race. Mark them as they sweep swiftly past, the ex- 
plorers' anxious eyes upon the unknown shores, their ears 
listening intently for any strange sound which may warn of 
danger. They are the first of their blood to pass this way 
in all the centuries. Hundreds of leagues from nearest com- 
panionship, fronting the unknown, the savage Indian on 
every side, the solemn wilderness a weight upon them, they 
yet press sternly forward, feeling their uncertain passage 
mile by mile deeper into the desolation. 

In the first of these canoes are three men. At the paddles 
two Canadian voyageurs, swarthy of face, roughened to every 
hardship of this far frontier, their heads wound about with 
gay-colored kerchiefs, their wide-collared shirts flung open 
to the waist. But up within the bow, his eye scanning every 
object, is a man of another type — strong of build, dark of eye 
and beard, alert, with intelligent face and energetic gesture. 
It is Louis Joliet, the son of a Quebec blacksmith, himself a 
fur trader, and the man especially selected by Talon and 





STATUE OF MARQUETTE 

MAR(^UETTE, MICHIGAN 



THE FIRST EXPLORERS 



43 



Frontenac to unlock the secrets of this great, mysterious 
river of the west, the wonders of which have been borne to 
French ears from the lips of wandering Sioux. Behind, 
urged on by three other paddling engages, the counterparts 
of those commanded by Joliet, sweeps the second canoe; but 
he who sits within, unoccupied, his eyes searching the waters 
or uplifted in prayer toward the blue sky, has little in com- 
mon with that aggressive fur trader so sternly pointing the 
way. He is a man of thirty-six years, smooth-shaven, 
delicate of frame, his face thin and care-worn from 
excessive vigils, his eyes deeply sunken, his form envel- 
oped in a shapeless black robe, frayed and rusty from long 
travel. At his girdle hangs a crucifix, and his white hands 
finger the rosary about his throat, his lips moving in contin- 
ual supplication. It is Pere Jacques Marquette, of the Soci- 
ety of the Jesuits, for five years past missionary to the Upper 
Lakes. To look at him is to read his traits of character be- 
yond mistake. He is a religious enthusiast, a true successor 
to those other priestly martyrs of the frontier — Jogues, Gar- 
nier, and Brebeuf. For Christ and the Virgin he burns to 
dare and to suffer, to discover new lands and to conquer new 
realms. His one ever-present thought now, as these boats 
sweep swiftly downward, is the salvation of souls; Joliet 
may scan those banks with apprehension, but Marquette 
longs for sight of savages, that he may deliver to them the 
message of his religion. 

We know not when, nor where, these strange companions 
first placed foot upon the soil of Illinois. Somewhere along 
that upper river they made their earliest bivouac, drew up 
the inverted canoes upon the bank, built their flickering fire, 
talked together over the meal of bison flesh and their even- 
ing pipes, to finally slumber beneath the watchful stars. 
All around them nature was most beautifully arrayed, the 
country stretching away on either hand like a vast park, di- 
versified by dark groves, flower-strewn prairies, and streams 



44 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

of silvery water. But it seemed deserted of inhabitants — it 
was a solitude, unrelieved by faintest trace of man's presence. 
Knowing not what dangers might lurk below, they advanced 
only during the day, making camp with each twilight to cook 
their evening meal, then anchoring their canoes well out in 
the wide stream while they slept. For some ten days they thus 
slowly advanced southward, without gaining a glimpse of a 
human being, their souls oppressed by the intense loneliness 
of their surroundings and the silent majesty of that mighty 
river on which they journeyed, when, on the twenty-fifth, 
they discovered the unmistakable footprints of men in the 
mud of the western bank. Landing, probably, close to the 
mouth of the river Des Moines, they found a deeply indented 
path leading directly across the surrounding prairie. De- 
termined to learn something of their whereabouts and sur- 
roundings, Joliet and Marquette, leaving their canoes in 
charge of their engages, set forth alone on their dangerous 
mission of discovery, the one anxious for guidance on the 
further journey, the other eager to find savages to whom he 
might preach. 

The day was beautifully clear, and for some two leagues 
they walked, scarcely exchanging a word, following that nar- 
row trail across the open prairie and through dark forest, 
their hearts filled with apprehension, until they suddenly 
came upon an Indian village along the river bank, and 
could distinguish two others crowning a hill still farther 
away. With anxious hearts they continued to advance, 
finally coming within sound of the voices of the unsuspect- 
ing savages. Then they stood boldly forth in the open 
prairie and shouted aloud to attract attention. Instantly all 
was confusion in the near-by village. The inmates swarmed 
forth from the huts, while four old men, a little later, stalked 
gravely out to meet them. Their earliest greeting proved 
friendly, and to Marquette's inquiry in the Algonquin 
tongue they made answer that they were *' Illini," and offered 



THE FIRST EXPLORERS 45 

to their visitors the calumet of peace. All the remainder of 
that day and night the two adventurers passed in these vil- 
lages, being continually feasted by the tribe, and receiving 
much valuable information relative to the surrounding tribes 
of Indians. Marquette preached to them in the Algonquin 
dialect, of which he was master, and the principal chief, in 
return, presented them with a young slave, which they felt 
obliged to accept. In the morning, six hundred savages, 
gay in their barbaric adornment, escorted them in safety 
back to their canoes, and lined the river bank as they de- 
parted. 

Once again they were left without guidance and alone, 
drifting down the vast, solemn river unexplored by white 
men, past unknown shores, and constantly facing mysterious 
perils. They thus glided by the mouth of the Illinois, 
gaining a fleeting glimpse up the quiet, silvery stream, and 
noting its peaceful current, while a little later their adven- 
turous canoes swept silently beneath the shadow of those 
strange rocks guarding the eastern bank, which had been 
chiselled into such oddly sculptured forms by wind and wave. 
On ancient French maps attempting to depict these regions, 
these were later marked as " The Ruined Castles." Only a 
short distance below this point, just above where the city 
of Alton now stands, they swept swiftly around a sharp curve 
in the shore-line, and, as Parkman says, were " suddenly re- 
minded that the Devil was still lord paramount of this 
wilderness." On the flat face of a high rocky bluffs were 
painted in red, black, and green a pair of hideous monsters, 
such as could only be conceived within the brain of savages 
— each "as large as a calf, with horns like a deer, red eyes, 
a beard like a tiger, and a frightful expression of countenance. 
The face is something like that of a man, the body covered 
with scales, and the tail so long it passes entirely around the 
body, over the head, and between the legs, ending like that 
of a fish." This is the description given by the horrified 



46 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Jesuit, but his later drawing of the two monsters has unfor- 
tunately been lost. That such paintings were there, there 
can be no doubt, although as early as 1699, when St. Cosme 
saw them, they were already almost completely effaced. 
Douay and Joutel also mention them, although then the 
colors had doubtless greatly faded, the former thinking them 
not at all terrifying. The rock upon which they were 
painted has of late years been partially quarried away, but 
is still of considerable size, and impressive when viewed from 
the river below. 

These earliest voyagers had scarcely recovered from 
their shock at this sight, when they were suddenly plunged 
into a real peril. A perfect torrent of yellowish mud gushed 
furiously forth into the quiet blue of the Mississippi, threat- 
ening to overwhelm their frail canoes, and compelling them 
to skirt the eastern shore closely for safety. It bore down in 
its tumultuous course huge masses of driftwood, including 
entire uprooted trees, its invading current sweeping directly 
across the broad stream, on which they had travelled so long 
in security. This was the mouth of the Missouri, where that 
turbulent and muddy river, descending through a vast desert 
of prairie, poured its swollen floods into the keeping of its 
more gentle sister, discoloring its waters. " I never," writes 
Marquette, " saw anything more terrific." Yet they es- 
caped all injury, and held bravely on their course southward, 
finding the current of the river ever more troublesome and 
swift from this uniting of the two streams. With wondering 
eyes, yet unseeing of the marvellous future, these daring ex- 
plorers, tossing in their frail bark canoes, swept past the site 
of the coming city of St. Louis, as well as the spot where Kas- 
kaskia was to stand, and yet later, marvelling still at every 
new discovery, discerned on their left the mouth of that 
stream already visited by La Salle and to which the Iro- 
quois had given the name Ohio, "river of beauty." 

Day following day, the intrepid little party pressed steadily 



THE FIRST EXPLORERS 47 

southward. The river broadened almost into an inland sea, 
the marshy shores became buried beneath dense masses of 
cane, so as to hide their outlines, the sun glowed through the 
hazy air with stifling heat, while myriads of mosquitoes af- 
forded them little peace either by night or day. They floated 
slowly with the current, crouching beneath the grateful 
shade of small sails hoisted to aid their progress, their 
wearied eyes eagerly marking each peculiarity of the 
passage. Occasionally they met with Indians of different 
tribes, some of whom threatened to attack, but kind words 
won safe passage, and the zealous Jesuit found means to 
preach to them, in hopes of saving some. Just below the 
mouth of the Arkansas, the travellers, at their night-camp, 
held council together regarding what further course to 
pursue. They determined they had already proceeded far 
enough southward, for they had discovered the one impor- 
tant fact underlying their early purpose of exploration: the 
Mississippi — which they called the Colbert — beyond doubt 
discharged its mighty waters into the Gulf of Mexico. Fear- 
ful of the Spaniards, whom they believed had control of 
that low^er country, they finally resolved on an immediate 
return to Canada, with a report of their discoveries for the 
French authorities. 

They began their upward voyage the 17th of July. It 
was a hard task, in which all took incessant part. In the 
stifling heat of that southern midsummer, pressing steadily 
against the fierce sweep of the mighty current, " toiling all 
day under the parching sun, and sleeping at night in the ex- 
alations of the unwholesome shore," they won their slow and 
painful passage northward. Exhausted by the strain, his 
naturally delicate health weakened by continual exposure, 
Marquette suffered an attack of severe dysentery. Unable to 
assist in the labor, he could only lie helpless in the bottom of 
the narrow canoe, praying fervently to the Virgin for strength, 
while day after day, week following week, his companions 



48 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

battled with the current. It was in this stress they finally 
attained the mouth of the river Illinois, and, following the 
advice of a friendly Indian, entered its peaceful waters. Here 
the sweep of the current proved far gentler, the waters about 
them more placid, while on either side, amid dark forests and 
sunny prairies, were seen vast herds of buffalo and deer. 
They were now in the very heart of Illinois as it appeared 
in all the virgin beauty of the wilderness in Summer-time. 
The prairies were abloom with rarest coloring, the wide val- 
ley, stretching on either side back to the far-away bluffs, was 
green with waving grasses, the silvery waters about them 
reflected back the overarching blue of the cloudless sky. It 
was as if these weary, toil-worn voyagers wandered through 
some forgotten corner of Paradise. And the good father 
wrote gratefully, " We have seen nothing more beautiful." 

Well up the river, probably at the Peoria village beside the 
strait, they discovered their first natives, and finally made halt 
at a spot which, later, became well known in the story of the 
West. This was upon the western bank, where the meadows 
now lie between the present village of Utica and the river, 
about seven miles below the city of Ottawa. Here was the 
principal village of the Illinois Indians, called by them Kas- 
kaskia — a name later applied to another locality on the 
Mississippi, at the mouth of a river bearing a similar name. 
The town consisted at that time of seventy-four lodges. 
Each of the lodges contained several families, and they were 
spread out for a considerable distance both up and down the 
river bank. Here the explorers were received with the 
utmost kindness, but any long delay was impossible, in spite 
of Marquette's zealous desire to convert the savages. Guides 
were procured, and amid earnest promises from the Jesuit of 
an early return, the little band again turned their battered 
prows up stream toward distant civilization. One chief with 
several younger warriors accompanied them. Following the 
Illinois and the Des Plaines Rivers, they made portage to 



o 
> 

a: 

o 



a 

w 
H 
H 




THE FIRST EXPLORERS 49 

the Chicago, thus reaching Lake Michigan, then known as the 
Lake of the lUinois. Saying farewell on the lovely prairie 
where Chicago stands, and following the western shore-line 
of the lake, they finally attained to Green Bay the latter part 
of September, having been absent four months, and having 
travelled a distance of more than twenty-five hundred miles 
in their frail canoes. 

Great as was this achievement, its sequel was the loss of a 
most valuable life. Joliet, after lingering at Sainte Marie to 
write his report and prepare a map, departed eastward to 
tell his story to Frontenac. Just before reaching Montreal, 
his canoe was overturned in the foaming waters of the Sault 
St. Louis, his papers were lost, and two of his men and 
an Indian boy were drowned, he himself remaining uncon- 
scious for hours. Nevertheless, he was received with joy, a 
Te Deum was chanted in the Cathedral, and he was later 
given the island of Anticosti as a reward for his toil. But 
Marquette remained all that Winter and the Summer fol- 
lowing, seriously sick with his malady in that dismal station 
at Green Bay, the mission of St. Fran9ois Xavier. His one 
prayer during all these months was, that he be given strength 
to return with his message of salvation to the waiting Illinois. 
At last, when Autumn came, he received orders from his 
Superior, and departed on his desperate trip, although far 
from well. He left Green Bay the twenty-fifth of October, 
1674. Two engages — Pierre Porteret, and Jacques — were 
his sole white companions. Some Pottawattomies and a few 
Illinois Indians, whom they met on the way, completed the 
party, there being ten canoes in all. 

They followed the east shore of Green Bay, and at the 
head of Sturgeon Cove made portage to Lake Michigan. 
It was already November, one of the most stormy months on 
these inland seas, yet it was not in Marquette to hesitate be- 
fore physical danger. He was ever in the hands of God. 
They were more than a month feeling their slow way south- 



50 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

ward along the desolate and storm-lashed shore until they 
arrived at the mouth of the Chicago River. Snow and chilly 
wind buffeted them continually. It was a deserted, dreary 
spot, wrapped in all the sombreness of Winter. With infinite 
labor they pushed their frail canoes through the ice already 
coating the narrow stream for about two leagues. Here Mar- 
quette suffered from a severe hemorrhage, and the party were 
reluctantly compelled to make camp on the frozen earth of the 
river bank. To press on farther with so sick a man was 
manifestly impossible. A slight distance up what is now 
known as the South Branch, in the midst of a dreary desola- 
tion of snow-clad plain, the two engages built a rude hut, re- 
alizing that they must remain there through the Winter. 

For Marquette, who felt that he must now be fast ap- 
proaching his end, the time passed in spiritual exercises, and 
prayers that he might be spared to continue his work. The 
others hunted with success, killing buffalo, deer, and tur- 
keys. Cold as the weather soon became, the dreary plains 
sheeted with snow, with ice forming half a foot thick on the 
streams, game was easily procured. A camp of Illinois In- 
dians was within two days' journey of them, and in kindness 
these savages brought them some corn meal. Eighteen 
leagues away to the northward, two adventurous French 
traders were passing the Winter. One was the noted coureur 
de bois, Pierre Moreau, better known as La Taupine, his 
companion being called the Surgeon. They also visited 
Marquette, bringing supplies, and aiding him in every way 
possible in such a wilderness. 

By the last of March (as he firmly believed, in direct re- 
sponse to prayer) the Jesuit was able to resume his toilsome 
journey. On the thirtieth the little company left their miser- 
able hut, which already had been invaded by a sudden rise of 
the river, and bore their light canoes, through mud and water 
knee-deep, across the portage leading to the Des Plaines. 
Amid the ceaseless rains of Spring they swept down the 



THE FIRST EXPLORERS 51 

surging current, past leafless woods and prairies half under 
water, until they attained the broader stream of the Illinois, 
down which they made rapid progress toward the old Indian 
town on the Utica meadows. Here Marquette was received, 
as he reported, " like an angel from heaven," and, instantly 
forgetting all his physical weakness and suflFering, with Jesuit 
enthusiasm he passed from wigwam to wigwam, telling his 
story, as Parkman says, "of God and the Virgin, Paradise and 
Hell, angels and demons." Then he summoned the crowds 
to a grand council, that he might instruct them in the myste- 
ries of faith. 

That gathering must have formed one of the most remark- 
able scenes in all Western history. It was held on those 
great meadows stretching between the river bank and the 
present village of Utica, in La Salle County. Imagine it, if 
you can — the sweeping plains, beginning to show green 
beneath the Spring sun, the distant ridge of darker hills ob- 
scuring the horizon, the narrow fringe of trees along 
the course of the stream, the silvery sparkle of the wide 
river. And then that assemblage in the centre of this wilder- 
ness picture — Marquette in his frayed and rusty gown, his 
pale face exhibiting his illness, his eyes burning with fever, his 
slender frame trembling from weakness and enthusiasm. 
Before him, in a vast ring, were seated five hundred chiefs 
and old men; behind them stood fifteen hundred youths and 
warriors, while farther back still were grouped all the women 
and children of that great village. Where in all history is 
there another such a sight ^. And Marquette did his duty as 
he understood it. Upholding before them four large pictures 
of the Virgin, he addressed them on the mysteries and duties 
of Christianity, exhorting them to save their priceless souls 
while there was yet time. As a dying man to dying men he 
made fervent appeal. And they met him kindly, beseeching 
him to remain in their village and tell them more. But the 
Jesuit knew his life was fast passing away; that some other 



52 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

missionary of the Cross must carry on this mighty work he had 
begun; that he must instantly return north to send to them 
a brother of his Order. He had claimed the land for God, 
naming his mission the Immaculate Conception; he had 
sown the seed; it was his purpose now to discover the reaper. 

It was a few days after the celebration of Easter that he 
departed, a large concourse of Indians voyaging with him in 
their canoes, and showing him a new route by way of the 
Kankakee. At St. Joseph he left them, embarking in a 
frail canoe, accompanied only by his two white companions. 
They set out to reach Michillimackinac, and shaped their 
course along the eastern shore, seeking thus a more peaceful 
passage. All about them was the fresh beauty of the Spring- 
time, yet as the faithful Pierre and Jacques paddled their 
boat past the desolate shores, the dying Jesuit lay helpless 
in the canoe, his sight already dimmed, his small strength 
rapidly waning. On the nineteenth of May he conceived 
that his hour of departure was indeed at hand, and as they 
discovered the opening of a little river in the shore-line, re- 
quested his companions to paddle in toward the bank. Has- 
tily the two sorrowing servants erected a shelter of bark on 
some rising ground near the southern bank of the stream, 
and bore the fast dying priest there. He gave solemn di- 
rections regarding his burial, asked forgiveness for all the 
trouble he had ever given them, administered the solemn 
sacrament of penitence, and "thanked God that he was per- 
mitted to die in the wilderness, a missionary of the faith and a 
member of the Jesuit brotherhood." 

That night he bade them sleep all they could, pledging 
himself to call them in time of need. Three hours later they 
heard his faint voice calling, and found him dying. He ex- 
pired, breathing the name of Mary, his dim eyes fas- 
tened on a crucifix held before him. The two sorrowing 
Frenchmen dug a shallow grave in the sand beside the hut, 
and having buried his emaciated body, and raised a wooden 



THE FIRST EXPLORERS 53 

cross over it, hastened northward with their sad news. In 
the following Spring a party of Kiskakon Indians carried his 
bones to St. Ignace, where they were again buried with sol- 
emn ceremony beneath the floor of the little mission chapel 
of Michillimackinac. So, in the savage heart of that wilder- 
ness where he had labored so long, and not for earthly re- 
ward, passed away this discoverer of the Illinois country, 
this truly heroic soldier of the Cross, Pere Jacques Marquette, 
in his thirty-ninth year. An unfinished letter, describing 
his last visit to the Illinois, was lately found at the College of 
Ste. Marie, at Montreal. Particularly interesting does it be- 
come with the knowledge that it was doubtless largely writ- 
ten while he was lying sick in that desolate hut within the 
present limits of Chicago. 



CHAPTER IV 

LA SALLE AND HIS VOYAGEURS IN THE 
ILLINOIS COUNTRY 

AMONG all those French names connected with earliest 
Illinois history the one which looms largest is that of 
Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle. Whether or not, 
as some ably contend, he was the first European to visit the 
head of the great lake, and to attain the Mississippi at its junc- 
tion with the Ohio, even penetrating to the juncture of the Des 
Plaines and the Illinois Rivers, it remains certain that no 
other in his century had so much to do with the destinies of 
this vast inland empire of wilderness. As early as 1678 he 
describes this land with all the accuracy of an eye-witness. 
In now dealing with his life-work, we must pass but lightly 
over its wider scope of operation, contenting ourselves with 
somewhat careful tracing of that narrower portion directly 
appertaining to this country of the Illinois. 

Born in 1643, at Rouen, France, the son of a wealthy mer- 
chant, becoming an earnest Catholic, educated under the 
guidance of the Jesuits, he came, at the age of twenty-three, 
to Canada, to seek his fortune in that new land. From his 
first landing in 1666, his imagination had been kindled by 
those vast leagues of untravelled wilderness stretching west- 
ward beyond the uttermost French frontier, and in 1669 he 
cast aside all restraints of property and civilization to devote 
his entire future life to exploration and the extension of 
French dominion. His is a story, sad and heroic, of con- 
stant struggle, not only against the inhospitable wilderness, 
the dangers innumerable of unknown forest and prairie, 
lake and river, but the continual conspiracy of enemies in 

54 



LA SALLE IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRT 55 

Canada, jealous of his hard-earned success. A weaker man 
would have fallen early beneath the ever-increasing burden, 
but La Salle battled on grimly to the end, a brave, pathetic 
figure, and has written his name indelibly across the heroic 
annals of the West. 

It was in October, 1679, that, so far as can be positively 
ascertained. La Salle first set foot on Illinois soil. The spot 
was somewhere along the Lake Michigan shore, within the 
limits of the present county of Lake. Let us note what 
brought him there. After combating obstacles seemingly 
unsurmountable, involving the necessity of a personal trip 
across the sea to the French court, and amid labor that ap- 
pears incredible, this iron man of energy had finally, on the 
Niagara River, constructed a small vessel of forty-five tons, 
which was christened the "Griffin," besides gathering to- 
gether the necessary crew for the boat, as well as a con- 
siderable company to assist him in land exploration. His 
purpose was clear, his ideal truly a great one. Had he been 
permitted to carry it out, and loyally supported in his plans 
by the Canadian authorities, it would doubtless have changed 
our entire Western history. It was, in brief, this — the estab- 
lishment of a complete chain of French forts, extending from 
Lake Ontario to the distant mouth of the Mississippi, thus 
holding firmly and for ever all this vast inland empire be- 
neath the sway of the fleur de lis. Frontenac had already 
been established, Niagara begun, Detroit was destined soon 
to follow, and now this intrepid leader plunged out into the 
farther wilderness to seek a suitable site along the Illinois. 
In August, 1679, the voyagers set sail, their little vessel the 
first, other than frail canoes, to navigate the waters of the 
great lakes. At Green Bay the " Griffin " was sent back 
eastward, under her captain, with a load of furs, being or- 
dered to return as early as possible. Then La Salle, with 
his few chosen companions, embarked in canoes, and started 
southward for the mouth of the St. Joseph. 



56 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

His was a motley company of fourteen men, crowded 
within the narrow confines of four canoes deeply laden with 
tools, merchandise, and arms. Of these, ten were Canadian 
voyageurs, one a Mohegan Indian hunter; the others, priests 
of the gray robe, the Recollet friars, Louis Hennepin, Gabriel 
de la Ribourde, and Zenobe Membre. The weather proved 
exceedingly stormy, the lake rough; savages disturbed them 
in their night-camps along the shore, and their progress was 
slow and full of constant peril. For several days they were 
unable to proceed at all. It was thus they reached the limits 
of Illinois, and their first night upon the soil proved a memo- 
rable one. A heavy east wind lashed the waters into madness, 
and toward the close of day fairly hurled their frail cockle- 
shells upon the beach. No sooner were they safely ashore 
than they discovered undoubted evidence of Indian presence. 
A guard was set, but during the night, while the careless sen- 
tinel screened himself from the floods of cold rain, a party of 
Outagamies crept close upon them under cover of the bank, 
from whence they scanned the sleepers for some time unob- 
served. Challenged at last, they came reluctantly forward, 
pretending friendship, but in the early dawn numerous 
thefts were discovered. There was but one thing to do, and 
La Salle did it. Seizing upon a young warrior as hostage, 
he marched boldly forth to the chief and demanded return of 
all the goods taken, threatening otherwise to immediately 
kill his prisoner. The Indians, confident of their strength, 
prepared to fight. It was a moment of intense strain. Three 
Flemish friars and eleven Frenchmen, guns in hand, stood 
desperately at bay before one hundred and twenty yelling 
savages. Yet neither party ventured to commence the at- 
tack, and finally substantial justice was achieved by means 
of a parley, and the restoration of most of the articles stolen. 

Once free from this trouble. La Salle pushed resolutely on, 
passing beyond the mouth of the Chicago, and skirted the 
desolate sand-dunes until he at last attained the entrance to 



LA SALLE IN THE ILLINOIS COUNT RT 57 

the St. Joseph River. Here he expected to be joined by an- 
other party of twenty men, under command of his lieutenant, 
Henri de Tonty, who had been ordered to proceed down the 
eastern shore from MichiUimackinac. The company waited 
twenty days before the latter made appearance, busying 
themselves meanwhile by the erection of a rude log fort. 
Considerable more time was wasted waiting for the arrival of 
several of Tonty's men, who had become lost in the wilder- 
ness, and still more in daily expectation of the return of the 
missing " Griffin." No sail gladdened the eye of the discour- 
aged commander along that desolate expanse of inland sea. 
Somewhere, tossed on the stormy waves of upper Michigan, 
his little vessel of adventure had met her fate, leaving the 
wayfarers utterly alone amid those leagues of wilderness. Of 
this La Salle could not then know, but he dared delay his ad- 
vance into the interior no longer. Already ice was forming 
on the streams, and would soon block the passage. 

December 3, the party, numbering twenty-nine French- 
men and the Indian Le Loup, reembarked in eight canoes, 
poling these with great labor through the floating ice of the 
St. Joseph as far as the present city of South Bend, Indiana. 
Here, after La Salle had been lost in the woods all of one 
bitter Winter night, they finally discovered the dim Indian 
portage leading across to the Kankakee, some three miles 
distant. It ran across a desolate snow-drifted plain, along a 
marshy path, past deserted Indian lodges. On the way. La 
Salle's life was attempted by a 'mutinous follower. Finally, 
they came to a dark, lazy current, across which a tall man 
might easily step, and which ran twisting like a snake among 
the rushes. Here they set their light canoes afloat, and for a 
considerable distance toilfully worked their way down the 
narrow, turgid stream through a confusing labyrinth of 
swamp, on every hand a wilderness of morass and rushes. 
As they thus crept into what is now Illinois territory, the scene 
about them began rapidly to change. Ranges of higher and 



58 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

densely wooded hills appeared close beside the bank, while 
as they mounted these rocky bluffs, the eye looked out afar 
over a vast sea of rolling prairie, with distant glimpses at 
herds of grazing buffalo and deer. With anxious eyes for 
ever scanning the banks on either side, they turned the prows 
of their canoes into the Illinois River, floated slowly past the 
present beautiful site of the city of Ottawa, pointing out to 
each other Buffalo Rock, which rose majestically upon their 
right. A short distance below, the river was divided by sev- 
eral islands, and stately woods guarded the shores with green. 
Here they paused, gazing with awe at a majestic and pe- 
culiar cliff, crowned with vast forest trees, which, rising sheer 
from the south bank, overhung the current where they rested. 
Sweeping beneath these gloomy shadows, suddenly just be- 
fore them, in front of where Utica now stands, appeared a vast 
assemblage of Indian lodges covering the entire northern 
shore (Hennepin tells us numbering 460), each fitted to shel- 
ter several families. But they were silent and deserted of 
inhabitants, a lonely sight enough in the heart of such drear 
desolation. The tribes were absent on their Winter hunt, 
and that Jesuit missionary whom Marquette had sent had 
retired to Wisconsin. 

Borrowing thirty minots of corn from out a hidden store 
found in the earth. La Salle again embarked his men, and the 
voyage was resumed. On New Year's day they landed to 
hear mass and wish each other a happy year, and four days 
later the prows of their venturesome canoes entered that 
wider expanse of water now known as Peoria Lake, making 
their way along the northern shore-line and through the 
straits until they reached the present site of the city of 
Peoria, where they established night-camp, seeing nothing 
to alarm them but some distant spirals of smoke. The next 
morning at nine o'clock, having attained that point where 
the waters again narrowed into a river, they discovered 
eighty Illinois wigwams, some appearing on opposite sides 




STATUE OF LA SALLE 

LINCOLN PARK, CHICAGO 



LA SALLE IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRT 59 

the stream. Not knowing what to expect, La Salle instantly 
prepared for war. Ordering his startled men to throw aside 
their paddles and take up their guns, the little flotilla swept 
swiftly down on the current toward the surprised savages, 
who stood awaiting them, arms in hand. On touching land. 
La Salle instantly leaped ashore, Tonty on his left, his armed 
Frenchmen pressing close behind him. This act of audacity 
won; two chiefs approached their visitors, bearing the peace- 
pipe, and the council which followed resulted in pledges of 
mutual friendship. But the trouble was not yet over — the 
savages strenuously objected to his plans, as they were pres- 
ently outlined to them; they desired no French fort erected 
in their country, nor did they wish the white men to proceed 
any farther south on their proposed exploration of the Missis- 
sippi; moreover, they considered the Canadian French as 
allies of the Iroquois, who were their most cruel enemies. 
For several days of council, peace and war balanced on al- 
most even scales, but at last La Salle won, by pledging him- 
self to defend their village against all Iroquois raiders. Yet 
hardly had this result been accomplished when the sorely 
harassed leader was compelled to face serious mutiny among 
his own followers. In the darkness of night, frightened by 
wild Indian stories, six men, among them his two best car- 
penters, deserted into the woods, doubtless intending to join 
those vagabond hunters who, even at that early day, were be- 
ginning to appear in Indian villages. Others of his little 
company sought to poison him, hoping thus to escape from 
iron discipline, while back from distant Canada news drifted 
across the weary leagues of forest that scheming enemies 
were eagerly seeking to overthrow his cherished plans and 
counteract his influence with those in authority. 

Feeling his absolute helplessness while thus remaining 
exposed within the Indian camp. La Salle now began 
the erection of a small fort. The exact site selected yet 
remains uncertain, but it was probably situated on the 



6o HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

eastern side of the river, about two hundred yards from 
the bank as then existing, and a short distance below the 
outlet of the lower lake. From Hennepin's description, it 
stood upon a low hill or slight eminence, having a deep ravine 
on either side, with lower ground, inundated at high water, 
lying directly in front. A ditch was excavated across the 
rear, running between the two ravines, thus leaving the hill 
nearly square in form. An embankment of earth was thrown 
up along each side, the declivities being sloped sharply down 
to the lower ground beneath. These were further guarded 
against Indian assault by chevaux-de-frise^ while a palisade 
of logs, some twenty-five feet high, but unstrengthened by 
bastions, was firmly planted around the whole. Within this 
primitive enclosure the men were lodged in small huts built 
at the angles to somewhat strengthen them; La Salle and 
Tonty shared together tents near the centre; another similar 
structure was erected for the use of the three friars; while 
the blacksmith had a special shed for the shelter of his 
forge, and there was a magazine. Such was Fort Creve- 
coeur — Broken Heart — the first fort ever built in the Illinois 
country, and the fourth in that long chain projected to 
extend from Montreal to the Gulf of Mexico. 

Not for one moment did this frontier leader permit any 
idleness to sap the spirits of his men. No sooner was the 
fort completed, than they were immediately employed at the 
construction of a vessel of forty tons with which to explore 
the lower Mississippi. Seeking to inspire the others with 
some of his personal enthusiasm, La Salle worked beside 
them with his own hands, cutting the heavy logs into planks 
with a whip-saw. By the first of February their task was half 
accomplished. A little later he despatched an expedition of 
three men — the priest Hennepin, with two voyageurs, Michel 
Accau and Le Picard du Gay — to explore the Mississippi 
from the mouth of the Illinois northward. They never again 
returned to the Illinois country, being captured by the Sioux 



LA SALLE IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRT 6i 

in what is now Minnesota, and finally taken to Canada by 
their French rescuers, where the friar wrote a deeply inter- 
esting, but hardly veracious, account of their many adven- 
tures and discoveries. Hennepin, hesitating to undertake 
so hazardous a trip, was finally persuaded into it by the 
advice of his brother friars. 

Two days after these men had disappeared from the little 
fort, floating down the gleaming river into the mystery below, 
La Salle also departed. Despairing of the safety of the 
" Griffin " and the coming of necessary supplies, with five 
men — the Mohegan, Hunault, La Violette, Collin, and D'Au- 
tray — as his companions, he started back across the broad 
intervening wilderness in desperate efi^ort to procure another 
outfit in far-away Canada. He left Crevecoeur under com- 
mand of Tonty, who had remaining with him there " three 
honest men and twelve plotting knaves " with whom to 
maintain French ascendency in the Illinois. The story 
of that terrible trip eastward cannot be retold here in 
any detail. The Winter had been unusually severe, the 
streams were yet ice-bound, sufficiently strong to withstand 
the advance of their canoes while not thick enough to 
upbear the weight of a man. Unable to desert the canoes by 
means of which La Salle intended to send back corn, knee- 
deep in half-melted snow they dragged their boats through 
the dreary woods for more than fifteen miles, until they 
finally discovered a current sufficiently rapid to keep the 
stream clear. Launched again, they were constantly blocked 
in their passage upward by masses of wedged ice, compelling 
continual portage. Cold rain fell in torrents, while the tem- 
perature remained so low as to freeze their clothing stiff" upon 
them. So severe was one blinding snowstorm as to involve 
a three days' halt. Ten days of severe exertion and terrible 
privation were spent in travelling the distance from Peoria 
Lake to Buff'alo Rock, — a distance we now pass over by rail 
in less than three hours. 



62 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

In the course of their advance, the Indian chief Chacha- 
gouessiou was met with and a council held, at which, the 
savage presenting them with a boat-load of corn, two of the 
Frenchmen were sent back to Crevecoeur in charge of it. 
The others, with the single canoe, left them, pressed on up 
the river through the thickening ice until, at last, they could 
proceed in that way no longer. Hiding their boat on what 
has since been named Treat's Island, just above the junction 
of the Du Page and Illinois, they started out afoot. Bearing 
their load of supplies, they plunged through a great marsh 
until they came out on the banks of the Little Calumet River. 
Here with great difficulty a raft was constructed, but it 
lacked buoyancy, and they crossed, standing deep in the icy 
water. A similar experience met them at the Grand Calumet 
Lake, but at last the strugglers came forth upon the sand of the 
shore. At Fort Miami, two Frenchmen — La Chapelle and 
Le Blanc — were found, and what little news they possessed 
was bad; the "Griffin" had made no appearance in these 
waters, and rumors had reached them of trouble for La 
Salle in Canada. Ordering these men to report to Tonty at 
Crevecceur, the intrepid leader, with the others, plunged 
into the forests of Southern Michigan, and defying storm, 
hunger, and threatened Indian attack, made straight for the 
Detroit. In all this heroic struggle La Salle led the way, 
breaking the drifted path for the others to follow. That he 
was, at this time, a man of marvellous physical power was 
plainly evidenced by the fact that he finally reached the fort 
on Niagara River in good condition, although four of his men 
had been compelled to halt by the way, and the fifth was left 
to recruit his strength at Niagara, while the commander alone 
pressed steadily forward upon his imperative mission. He 
reached Fort Frontenac April 21. 

Here the worst possible news met him. The " Griffin '* 
had never returned; the fate of both vessel and crew was a 
mystery not yet solved; a consignment of goods, worth twenty- 



LA SALLE IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRT 63 

two thousand livres, sent him from France, had been lost by 
shipwreck; while two coureurs de bois overtook him with a 
letter from Tonty, back in the Illinois wilderness, saying that 
all the garrison, excepting four or five men, had mutinied, 
destroyed the fort with its stores, and fled. 

Such a condition of affairs, such utter failure of long- 
cherished plans, would have crushed most men. La Salle's 
real greatness and true majesty of character are abundantly 
revealed by the noble manner in which he met these terrible 
reverses. He acted at once. By August, surmounting 
every obstacle of means, every opposition of enemies, he had 
succeeded in enlisting twenty-five new men with La Forest 
as lieutenant, obtained another outfit, and started imme- 
diately back to the relief of Tonty, whose faithfulness to 
duty now remained his chief's sole abiding hope for the 
future. 

Leaving La Forest at Michillimackinac to follow him as 
rapidly as possible with the others, and the store of supplies, 
La Salle chose a few picked men, and pushed swiftly for- 
ward.' He selected the old, familiar route, leading up the St. 
Joseph and down the Kankakee, until that stream united with 
the broader Illinois. The time was the last of November, 1680. 
At last his eager, speeding canoes rounded the last obstruct- 
ing point of land in their long journey, and his anxious eyes 
again looked forth on that plain where Utica now stands. 
So changed was the once familiar scene, the first glimpse 
must have struck him like a blow. Those meadows which 
he had left little more than six months previous fairly swarm- 
ing with life, and thickly crowded by Indian dwellings, were 
now a waste of desolation, a charnel-house of death, strewn 
with ashes, and whitened by human skulls. The lodges had 
been burned, and on their blackened poles severed heads 
impaled. The field before him was fairly strewn with torn 

^ Those chosen included D'Autray, the Surgeon, You, Tamisier, Baron, 
Hunault, Noel Blanc, and the Indian La Loup. 



64 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

and mangled corpses. No one needed to tell La Salle the 
cause — he recognized instantly the fiendish handiwork of the 
revengeful Iroquois. The blow which had so long threat- 
ened had at last fallen; the peaceful Illinois tribes had been 
smitten as by a flaming breath. 

Stunned and horrified, but one thought held him firmly, 
What had become of Tonty and his faithful men ? He searched 
the ghastly corpses, turning them over one by one, but all 
were alike Indian. Evening came before this horrid task 
could be completed; then night darkened, and the solemn 
stars brooded over that savage waste. Crouched about 
their camp-fire, in the midst of the ghastly dead. La 
Salle and his seven remaining companions kept dreadful 
vigil through a lonely night of surpassing horror. Wolves 
howled and fought above their prey, while the dense shadows 
might easily serve to conceal the skulking down upon them 
of those same ruthless savages who could scarcely be far 
distant. By dawn, the leader, dauntless still in his one stern 
purpose, had reached final decision — defying every danger, 
he would continue search for his lost comrades. Near the 
river bank, in the early light, he discovered six posts daubed 
red, while drawn rudely on each was the figure of a man with 
bandaged eyes. Believing these to represent six French 
prisoners yet alive in the hands of the Iroquois, La Salle 
turned his canoes down the river in relentless pursuit. 

So desperate was this venture, that, in hope of preserving 
some lives, he again divided his little band. Three, the 
Surgeon, Tamisier, and Baron, he hid on an island, with 
minute instructions for their safety. The baggage was 
hastily concealed in a cleft of the bluffs, and then with four 
men — the Mohegan Indian, D'Autray, Hunault, and You — 
he set forth undaunted on his perilous adventure in a single 
canoe. Each man was armed with two guns, a pistol, and a 
sword. All alike realized that if once discovered by the 
prowling Iroquois, ever pitiless enemies of the French, their 



LA SALLE IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRT 65 

certain fate would be death by torture. Yet none hesitated; 
with bated breath they swept past the silent, deserted shores, 
witnessing everywhere fresh evidences of savage cruelty. 
They passed camp after camp, lying deserted and desolate, 
while just across the river, opposite each former dwelling- 
place of the Illinois, was now the more recent camping-spot 
of pursuing Iroquois. The facts were plain to be read: that as 
the one had hastily retreated in canoes, the other, without 
boats, had as rapidly followed. Near the site of Crevecoeur 
they discovered merely the naked keel of the vessel which 
had been so long building, the iron nails and spikes all drawn. 
On one of the planks had been written, probably by one of 
the deserting knaves, "Nous sommes tous sauvages^ The 
silence of death reigned everywhere; earth and river, wood 
and plain, all about them, were like a vast graveyard. Here 
and there along the banks were discerned hideous blackened 
figures bound upright against stakes, but examination proved 
they were all the bodies of women and children. Evidently 
the warriors had fled in panic, leaving these weaker ones to 
their doom. 

The Frenchmen sought everywhere, tramping through 
scenes too horrible for description, yet nowhere was there 
slightest news of Tonty. At last they attained the Mississippi, 
and pausing only long enough to leave a message there for 
the missing, posted in a conspicuous place — a painted board 
nailed to a tree, — the despairing commander again turned the 
prow of his speeding canoe up the desolated Illinois. Night 
and day they toiled at the paddles, taking turns at the labor, 
and in the incredible space of four days were back once more 
at the great Indian village, having in that time covered a 
distance of two hundred and fifty miles. Night after night 
during their upward travel the heavens above them glowed 
resplendent with the "Great Comet of 1680." Parkman 
calls attention to the fact, that while in New England hamlets, 
even at cultured Versailles, it was looked upon with super- 



66 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

stitious awe, here in this far wilderness, with death in form of 
horror on every side, La Salle coolly noted it down as a mere 
scientific curiosity. Could any single act better characterize 
the true greatness of the man ? 

To remain amid the ruins of that destroyed and reeking 
village for the return of the victorious Iroquois would have 
been suicidal; so, gathering all his men once more together, 
La Salle, heart-sick and despairing, reluctantly began the 
ascent of the river. They departed December 28, and on 
January 6, 168 1, reached the juncture of the Des Plaines 
and Kankakee. A slight distance up the former stream 
stood a rude log hut, and within its walls was found the first 
slight evidence that Tonty might have passed that way. It 
consisted of a block of wood which had recently been cut 
with a saw. This small discovery kindled new hopes, and 
leaving D'Autray and the Surgeon here to guard stores, the 
others pushed on with lighter hearts, making their slow way 
directly overland toward the fort on the St. Joseph, where 
La Forest and his men must by this time be waiting their 
appearance. It was a most terrible midwinter trip. Snow 
fell constantly in blinding storms, but too soft for snow-shoes. 
They could only plunge desperately through it. La Salle 
ever struggling in the lead, beating a path for the others. 
Frequently he was buried to the waist, but there was no 
halting, and at last Fort Miami was attained. Here they 
found La Forest, but he had received no tidings of the lost 
Tonty. The brooding wilderness yet hid the secret of his 
fate from the distressed commander. 

But, whether in safety or danger, there was no rest possible 
for La Salle. Instantly his mind began planning anew for 
the future. He must relieve the guard on the Des Plaines; 
he would explore the Mississippi; he would colonize those 
harassed Indian tribes of the Algonquin family about some 
strong French fort in the heart of the Illinois country, in 
mutual protection against further inroads by the Iroquois. 



LA SALLE IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRY 67 

With him, to think was to act, and as it chanced, his material 
was even then at hand. The Puritans of Massachusetts had 
fought out King Philip's War, and a band of Abenakis had 
fled for refuge to this very region. They promised to follow 
him, and he also received a similar pledge from the Miamis. 
This arrangement, however, was scarcely completed when La 
Salle was obliged to journey again to the St. Lawrence "to 
appease his creditors " and " collect his scattered resources." 
How he did it is a mystery to his best biographers; yet, in spite 
of two years of disaster in these western wilds, in spite of debts 
bearing interest at forty per cent, in spite of a hundred 
scheming, revengeful enemies, he once more obtained the 
necessary means for a new voyage. Meanwhile the en- 
couraging news had filtered through the distance to him 
that Tonty and Membre were safely arrived at Michilli- 
mackinac, where they anxiously awaited his coming. 

They were all together again on the St. Joseph in Decem- 
ber, ready for fresh adventure. Determined first to explore 
the Mississippi, so as to more thoroughly outline his plans 
for the future. La Salle chose eighteen New England Indians 
to accompany his party of twenty-three Frenchmen. As 
many of these insisted upon taking their women along, the 
entire company, when finally embarked, numbered fifty-four. 
The frozen river rendered the Kankakee route impossible, and 
Tonty and Membre led the way with six canoes across the 
lake to the mouth of the Chicago River. La Salle, with the 
remainder, followed a few days later. New Year's day was 
passed on the site of Chicago. It was the middle of Winter, 
and all the smaller streams were solid with ice. They con- 
structed rude sleds, strapped their canoes upon them, and, 
in a straggling procession, dragged them wearily along the 
shining surface league after league, until they finally discov- 
ered open water below Lake Peoria. Here they embarked, 
and on the 6th of February, 1682, found their way into the 
majestic Mississippi. 



68 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Upon the details of this trip, extending so far beyond 
Illinois territory, it is not necessary to dwell. Sufficient to 
say, it extended to the mouth of the Mississippi, where the 
entire country was formally laid claim to in the name of 
France, in the month of April, 1682. The claim was the 
entire valley of the Mississippi, a magnificent domain. As 
a well-known historian has said: "From the oil-spring in 
Allegheny County, New York, to the dividing of the waters 
of Two Ocean Creek in Wyoming; from the Wisconsin lakes, 
where the wild goose nested and the Sioux ranged, to the 
tide-kissed marshes of the Gulf of Mexico, Louis the XIV 
now reigned supreme by virtue of the work of Rene-Robert 
Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle." Fortunately for American 
civilization, no other Frenchman his equal ever found way 
into these wilds to complete that gigantic task he had so well 
outlined and begun. Of those Frenchmen accompanying 
him upon this desperate venture, the names known may well 
be preserved: Membre, Hunault, La Violette, Creval, Pere 
Zenobe, Recollet missionary, Henri de Tonty, Francois de 
Boisrondet, Gabriel Barbier, Jean Bourdon, Sieur D'Autray, 
Jacques Cauchois, Pierre You, Gilles Meucret, Jean Michel, 
Surgeon; Jean Mas, Jean Dulignon, Nicholas de la Salle, 
and Pierre Prudhomme. 

Few words are necessary to tell the remainder of this 
strange life-story. In July, La Salle was back again on the 
Illinois, and upon the summit of Starved Rock built a fort, 
which was called St. Louis. It was the sixth in his proposed 
chain. Here he gathered his colony of Indians — Miamis, 
Shawnees, Abenakis, Mohegans, and Illinois, nearly fourteen 
thousand all told — and here he granted land to his followers, 
as he probably had the legal right to do. 

But, back in Canada, his numerous enemies were not idle. 
A new Governor — La Barre — had succeeded his old friend 
Frontenac, and was opposing La Salle's schemes with all the 
power of his high office. Finally, in desperation, the latter 




LA SALLE TAKING POSSESSION OF THE MISSISSIPPI 



FROM PAINTINC; BY CHARLOTTE WEBER 



LA SALLE IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRT 69 

left his colony to the command of Tonty, and proceeded 
direct to France, hoping thus to better his fortunes. 

To his surprise he found himself famous. He was pre- 
sented to the King, who listened to him, and was persuaded. 
Four ships were fitted out for the purpose of making a 
permanent settlement near the mouth of the Mississippi. 
The ambition of La Salle — the one man who stands conspic- 
uous in the New France of his day — seemed at last realized. 
Yet the fates had in his hour of triumph tangled the lines of 
his life. By mistake, the fleet, poorly outfitted and manned, 
passed beyond the Mississippi, and landed at Matagorda 
Bay, on the coast of Texas. Here the ill-starred colony 
languished for two years, at which time they were almost 
exhausted by disease and death. La Salle decided to push 
his way to the Illinois country in search for assistance. 
Accompanied by a few companions, he started on this 
desperate journey, but in the depths of that wilderness, 
somewhere on the banks of the Trinity River, was assassi- 
nated by one of his own cowardly men. Seven of his party 
succeeded in reaching the Illinois, but of the hapless colony 
left behind all perished. The date of La Salle's death was 
March 19, 1687, when he was but forty-three years of age. 

Thus perished one of the most remarkable explorers 
whose names live in history. " Never," writes Parkman, 
"under the impenetrable mail of paladin or crusader, beat 
a heart of more intrepid mettle. America owes him an 
enduring memory." Illinois especially should for ever do 
honor to his name. Whoever reads the marvellous story of 
his twenty years' toil must confess his greatness, and the 
power of that ideal which held him firm. His life and 
death constitute the one supreme tragedy of the Mississippi 
valley. 



CHAPTER V 

THE FASCINATING STORY OF TONTY 

AGAINST the dim and barren background of that seven- 
- teenth century struggle amid the Illinois wilderness, 
one figure stands forth conspicuous like a hero of romance. 
Clad in burnished breastplate and glittering headpiece, his 
hand hard-gripped upon sword-hilt, faithful, loyal, and de- 
void of fear, soldier, gentleman, and faithful friend, few 
indeed are the characters in frontier history more attractive 
than Henri de Tonty. 

It was while in Europe in 1678 that La Salle was first 
brought in contact with this young soldier, who from that 
hour was destined to prove his closest friend, his most 
trusted associate in daily peril. An Italian by birth, 
Tonty had been an officer of the French army, a protege of 
the Prince de Conti, and had lost one of his hands by the 
premature explosion of a grenade during the wars in Sicily. 
His father, who had been Governor of Gaeta, was also a 
financier of note, having devised the form of insurance 
now known as Tontine. A man yet young in years, of 
apparently delicate physique, possessing an agreeable 
presence, easily making and retaining friendships, La Salle 
again and again in his letters speaks of " his honorable 
character," " his amiable disposition," " his capability for 
doing things." In place of the lost member he wore a hand 
of iron, usually covered with a glove. This he was more 
than once compelled to use to good purpose when Indians 
became too unruly to be handled by mere words. La Potherie 
records that not knowing the secret of such severe blows the 
savages soon regarded him as a "medicine" of the first order. 

70 



THE FASCINATING STORT OF TO NTT 71 

Plunging into the backwoods almost as soon as he reached 
Canada, the remainder of Tonty's life was intimately con- 
nected with the American frontier, and particularly associated 
with the country of the Illinois. His earlier services, under 
La Salle, have already been mentioned. It is upon March 
2, 1680, that day when the great leader left him in com- 
mand at Fort Crevecoeur, that he first stands forth separate 
and distinct in history. One can but wonder at his thoughts 
as he stood there on the frozen shore at the foot of Peoria 
Lake in that far-off lonely day, and watched La Salle's canoe 
fade away into the distance. He was yet hardly a frontiers- 
man, for he had been scarcely more than a year upon the 
border; he was young, ambitious, trained to strict obedience 
in European military camps, yet now he was left entirely 
alone to command this uttermost post of France, with league 
on league of wilderness stretching about on every side, 
unknown, mysterious. Just above the little fort, on the 
opposite river bank, the great village of Illinois Indians 
swarmed with suspicious savages, while here within the log 
walls of Crevecoeur mutiny was already being shown openly 
before him. It was a situation desperate with peril, despair- 
ing in loneliness. 

He had with him only fifteen men with which to defend his 
position — smiths, ship-carpenters, housewrights, and soldiers, 
besides his servant, L' Esperance, and the two RecoUet friars, 
Membre and Ribourde. Most of these were already openly 
dissatisfied, while to make matters worse, La Salle had 
unluckily met during his eastward journey on the St. Joseph 
River two men — La Chapelle and Leblanc — whom he 
immediately hurried forward to join Tonty. They arrived 
six weeks later, bearing a tale of woe and disaster. The 
"Griffin " had been lost at sea, and La Salle ruined beyond 
recovery. This story they poured with many additions into 
the willing ears of the already mutinous garrison at Creve- 
cceur, and the response was sudden and disastrous. Tonty, 



72 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

accompanied by a few men, departed to examine and fortify 
Starved Rock, according to orders left him by La Salle. No 
sooner had they disappeared from sight than those left be- 
hind destroyed the fort, stole powder, lead, furs, provisions, 
and everything else portable, and deserted into the wilderness 
leaving no trace behind. Among them all, only two remained 
faithful to their absent leader, the young Sieur de Boisrondet, 
scarcely more than a boy, and the servant L'Esperance. 
These two, escaping from the mutineers, hastened with the 
news to Tonty, who instantly despatched four messengers 
by two different routes to inform La Salle of this new disaster 
which had befallen him. This left with Tonty, in addition 
to the two above mentioned, only Renault, and the two 
RecoUet priests, who were then in the Indian camp. With 
these he took up his abode in the great village of the Illinois, 
in the midst of eight thousand Indians. The Spring and 
Summer passed slowly, while they thus waited anxiously for 
the return of La Salle. By adroitness and firmness, Tonty 
managed to disarm the suspicion of the Illinois, but in the 
meanwhile, all unknown to both white and Indian, a storm 
was gathering in the East which would soon drench these 
prairies with the blood of its victims. This was an outpour- 
ing of the ferocious Iroquois, who had crushed the Hurons, 
the Eries, with others along the great lakes, and now turned 
their hungry eyes toward the Illinois in search after new 
victims. Five hundred warriors, moving with the celerity of 
demons, swept across the wide waste of forest and prairie 
toward their intended prey. All was idle repose and peace 
in the great town on the banks of the Illinois. Suddenly, 
like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, came news of the 
fierce invaders. A wandering Indian hunter brought the 
earliest warning of danger to the Illinois village, and in- 
stantly all was in the wild confusion of fear. Women 
snatched their children and fled screaming; warriors rushed 
about, nerving themselves for the coming battle, or clustered 



THE FASCINATING STORT OF TO NTT 73 

around Tonty and his little band of Frenchmen, openly 
accusing them of conspiracy with the ferocious invaders. That 
entire night the camp presented a hellish spectacle, in the 
midst of which the helpless Frenchmen remained in constant 
deadly peril at the hands of those affrighted, half-crazed 
warriors. Huge bonfires cast their red glare for miles 
around, while frenzied savages circled about them in the 
war-dance. At dawn the scouts came in, closely followed in 
their retreat by the advancing Iroquois. These scouts had 
perceived among the ranks of the enemy a chief arrayed in 
French costume, and reported that it was La Salle. Instantly 
the aroused Illinois, now convinced of treachery, rushed 
impetuously upon Tonty, brandishing their gleaming weap- 
ons, and shrieking madly for revenge. In order to save 
himself he promised that both he and his men should go 
forth to battle with them against the enemy. 

In the early dawn they crossed the river in their canoes, 
and spread out to block the path of the Iroquois, now swarm- 
ing forth in dense columns of warriors from the fringe of 
woods skirting the Vermilion. Guns began to crackle along 
the whole line of combat, which soon became fiercely engaged. 
Tonty, noting that the Illinois were largely outnumbered, and 
certain to be defeated, determined, at the risk of his own life, 
to go forward and attempt mediation. It was a daring 
venture, but alone promised hope for the Illinois. Dismiss- 
ing the three men who voluntarily started with him, throwing 
away his arms, and exposed to a heavy fire, he advanced 
alone, holding out a wampum belt as a sign of peace. A 
hundred yards was thus passed, and he came, miraculously 
unhurt, into the very midst of that frenzied band, who were 
wild with rage and thirsting for his blood. For an awful 
instant, deceived probably by his dark complexion and 
half-savage dress, they supposed him an Indian, and one 
savage made a vicious stab at his heart. The blade struck 
a rib and was turned aside, even as the chief discovered his 



74 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

real character, and interposed to protect him from violence. 
Led aside, but already faint from loss of blood, Tonty 
boldly advanced the claim that the Illinois Indians were 
under French protection, and that, by the terms of the treaty 
existing betw^een that nation and the Iroquois, they should 
not be molested, or made war upon. As he spoke a warrior 
snatched his hat, and held it aloft upon his gun. The distant 
Illinois seeing it, and believing that he had been killed, 
instantly renewed their fire, and the enraged warriors about 
him nearly broke from all control. Back and forth among 
themselves they debated in their anger how to dispose of 
their helpless victim, even lifting his hair for the scalping 
knife, while he was again seriously wounded. 

At last he succeeded in curbing them by the stern declar- 
ation that the Illinois tribes were twelve hundred strong, and 
that sixty Frenchmen were present to assist them. This state- 
ment was at least partially believed, and they finally de- 
spatched him back to his friends, in pretence of a truce. The 
older warriors commanded the firing to cease and then Tonty, 
dizzy from loss of blood, which was trickling from three 
wounds, was sent staggering back across the open plain, 
bearing his word of hopefulness to the Illinois. Encouraged 
by this message of peace the outnumbered tribes recrossed 
the river to their village, but were closely followed by their 
suspicious enemies as far as the bank. Nor did the latter 
make any long delay even there. Under the pretence of 
hunting, band after band of painted Iroquois warriors swam 
the intervening stream, and soon hung in threatening clouds 
about the doomed town, their shrill cries evidencing their 
fiendish determination at conquest. Becoming more and 
more alarmed by this evidence of ill-faith on the part of their 
treacherous enemies, the Illinois hastily decided on flight. 
Setting fire to their lodges, they sprang into their waiting 
canoes and hurried down the river to rejoin their women and 
children, who had been despatched before, leaving Tonty and 



THE FASCINATING STORT OF TONTT 75 

his little handful of helpless Frenchmen utterly alone amid 
the smoking ruins, to meet the inflowing horde of baflfled 
Iroquois. 

Immediately their fate hung suspended in the balance. 
The victorious savages constantly vacillated between mad 
courage and pusillanimous fear, one day preparing to despatch 
Tonty to the retreating tribes with another message of peace, 
the next threatening him with death and torture for having 
deceived them regarding the number of warriors among the 
Illinois. Out of all this turmoil and threatening, one fact 
at last became plainly evident — the Iroquois chiefs feared 
arousing the displeasure of Count Frontenac, and desired to 
get rid of these French witnesses before going further with 
their bloody work. To this end a council was finally called, 
and Tonty was offered six packages of beaver skins if he 
would leave the country. The young Italian soldier kicked 
their present away with scorn, haughtily demanding in turn 
that they leave the Illinois tribes alone, and return in peace to 
their own country. His stern words of rebuke led to his 
expulsion from the council, and the following day the enraged 
chiefs drove all the whites forth from the camp. 

Tonty had by this time done all possible to avert disaster. 
Repeatedly, at the risk of his life, and the lives of his men, he 
had interfered in behalf of the retreating Illinois. To remain 
longer amid such danger, was clearly useless. Realizing 
this, the little party of whites, six in number, set out in one 
wretched bark canoe furnished them, and departed up the 
river. Scarcely were they out of sight of the rejoicing Iro- 
quois when their boat began leaking so badly they were 
obliged to hastily land for the purpose of repairing it. While 
the others were thus working. Father Ribourde strolled away, 
breviary in hand, across the meadows for a few moments' 
silent meditation and prayer. When evening came he had 
not returned. Tonty, alarmed at his long absence, accom- 
panied by one man went in search. They found no sign of 



76 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

the aged priest, but discovered the fresh tracks of a band of 
prowhng Indians. Still hoping anxiously for the best, they 
fired guns to guide him back to the camp if still alive. Later 
a huge fire w^as built upon the bank for this same purpose, 
the cautious little band crossing the river and crouching low 
in the shadows, so they could watch unseen from the other 
shore. At midnight the dark, indistinct figure of a man 
hovered around the distant blaze, then many more joined 
him, but the friar was not among them. It was later learned 
these composed a prowling band of Kickapoos, who had 
accidentally met, and wantonly murdered the inoffensive 
old man, then in his sixty-fifth year, bearing his scalp in 
boasting triumph to their village. Somewhere on the Illinois 
River between the Fox and the Des Plaines the aged mission- 
ary had laid down his life in martyrdom. 

Convinced that Ribourde must be dead, Tonty and his 
men, giving up further search, proceeded up the river. Their 
craft again became disabled, and was finally abandoned, the 
party pressing forward on foot toward Lake Michigan. 
Their scant provisions became exhausted, and for days 
together they were compelled to exist on roots and acorns. 
Tonty fell sick with fever, while Boisrondet became lost for 
two days, and as they pushed on northward along the desolate 
west shore, the cold grew more intense while the means of 
subsistence decreased. All would have perished in the black 
forests, had they not discovered a few ears of corn and some 
frozen squashes near a deserted Indian village. Helped 
thus, they managed to stagger blindly forward, and by 
the close of November reached the camp of the Pottawat- 
tomies near Green Bay, where they were received with 
kindness. 

Meanwhile, relieved of their hindering presence, horrible 
deeds had been wrought in the Illinois country by the 
fiendish Iroquois. Tearing open the graves near the great 
village, and terribly mutilating the dead bodies, which were 




HENRI DE TONTY 

FROM BAS-RELIEF IN MARQUETTE BUILDING, CHICAGO 



THE FASCINATING STORT OF TO NTT 77 

left scattered everywhere across the prairie as prey for wolves, 
these savage demons, yet unsatiated in their ferocity, 
started down the river in pursuit of the retreating tribes. 
Day after day the two — the pursued and the pursuers — 
pressed southward, the one on water, the other on land, an 
equal distance being maintained between them. Finally 
the Iroquois won by treachery an opportunity for the striking 
of a deadly blow. They pretended a desire merely to drive the 
Illinois from the country, not to destroy them. Deceived by 
this statement the allied tribes separated, some going farther 
down the Mississippi, others crossing to its western bank. 
The Tamaroas, apparently more credulous than the others, 
remained encamped near the mouth of the Illinois. Sud- 
denly the Iroquois swept down upon them; the men fled in 
dismay, while women and children, to the number of seven 
hundred, fell into those bloody, clutching hands. That 
which followed is, in its details, too horrible for record. 
Tortures, butcheries, burnings, such as only the terrible 
Iroquois could perpetrate, were common scenes up and down 
the banks of the Illinois. Some evidences of their horrid 
work remained when, two weeks later. La Salle passed along 
that way in his fruitless search afte^Tonty, but in the mean- 
time the murderers had fled, bearing away with them as 
slaves all those captives who had been preserved from the 
torture. Slowly, as returning courage crept back into their 
chilled hearts, the Illinois came creeping again into their 
desolated country, even reestablishing themselves in their old 
village, along those meadows which now front Utica. 

Undismayed by all the peril and suffering through which 
he had already been called upon to pass, Tonty, the moment 
sufficient strength returned to his body, sought communica- 
tion with La Salle, and an opportunity to plunge once more 
into the depths and dangers of the wilderness. This young 
European soldier already felt the strange spell of the woods 
upon him, the spirit of adventure calling him back to peril 



78 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

and hardship. By the end of May, 1681, these two comrades 
met once again behind the log paHsades at Michilhmackinac, 
told each to the other their disheartening tales of disaster, 
and then sternly set to work to plan anew. Paddling their frail 
canoes a thousand miles eastward, they held audience with 
Frontenac, straightened out, as best they could, the tangled 
threads of La Salle's finances in Quebec and Montreal, and 
then again turned westward, their heroic faces set grimly 
toward the haunted wilderness. The Summer had already 
waned when they attained the shores of Huron on the return 
passage, and week after week their laden canoes crept slowly 
forward along the lonely banks, by desolate ranks of bristling 
firs; lake and forest, forest and lake, a dreary scene, haunted 
ever by memories of horror. At last the wearied prows 
found rest on the gravelled shore at the mouth of the St. 
Joseph, and La Salle and Tonty stood once more together 
on the edge of that vast country they had set their hearts upon 
winning for France. 

The season was already far advanced, the sullen December 
air nipping with the chill of Winter, but neither leader nor 
lieutenant hesitated before exposure or trial. Accompanied 
by Father Membre, and a small party of followers crowded 
into six frail canoes, Tonty departed a few days in advance of 
the main body. The great lake was swept by fierce storms, 
but skirting the sand-dunes of what is now Indiana, they 
succeeded in reaching the mouth of the Chicago River. 
Dragging their boats on rudely improvised sleds, along the 
frozen water-courses, often wading deep in snow that swirled 
about them in clouds, the struggling advance finally attained 
to open water below Peoria. Here they were joined by the 
others. The great village of the Illinois was discovered 
deserted, the tribes being absent on their Winter's hunt, and 
the prows of the venturesome canoes were pointed southward 
in exploration of the lower waters, as yet almost unknown. 
It was a dismal, dreary picture of desolation amid which they 



THE FASCINATING STORT OF TONTT 79 

floated, the wide prairies wrapped in a mantle of obscuring 
snow, the tall trees lining the banks sheeted with frost, 
the river full of running ice. February 6, 1682, they swept 
forth from the mouth of the Illinois into the broader Missis- 
sippi, but were here compelled to camp for a week waiting 
until the ice should open sufficiently to permit farther passage. 
All this time no sign of human life was apparent anywhere. 
A deserted village of the Tamaroas was passed just north of 
the juncture of the Ohio, but the first Indians met in all this 
immense stretch of wilderness were Chickasaws far down 
amid the dreary rice swamps. 

Constantly, as they thus drifted downward into the un- 
known, frequently wrapped in a dense curtain of mist, the 
savage war drums would boom ominously from the banks, 
and it was Tonty — fearless for adventure — who went boldly 
ashore to make friends with the natives. Thus feeling their 
uncertain way, three hundred miles below the mouth of the 
Arkansas they approached the great village of the Taensas. 
Tonty and Membre set out daringly through the swamp and 
visited it after a two hours' toilsome journey. Never before 
had they seen so pretentious an Indian town. It consisted, 
by his description, of large, square dwellings, built of sun- 
baked mud mixed with straw, arched over by dome-shaped 
roofs of cane, all placed in regular order about an open area. 
The following morning, when again on the wide river, 
Tonty gave chase to a wooden canoe filled with Indians. He 
had nearly come up to it, when more than a hundred savages 
made their appearance on the shore, close at hand, their bows 
bent ready for battle. La Salle ordered Tonty to come back. 
The Italian obeyed, and crossing the river, the entire party 
went into camp on the opposite shore. Immediately the 
intrepid Tonty volunteered to cross alone to negotiate peace 
with this unknown tribe. Desperate as the mission seemed 
from the war-like motions of the savages, the calm audacity 
of this one-armed soldier carried the day, and soon all were 



8o HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

seated about a camp-fire smoking the peace-pipe together. 
These were the Natchez, a tribe destined to play an important 
part in the Indian history of the Southwest, and by many 
believed to have been the last remnant of the ancient Mound- 
builders. They were sun worshippers, and their towns 
and customs were found most interesting and peculiar. 

On the sixth of April the river divided into three broad 
channels, the boat containing La Salle followed that trending 
toward the west, D'Autray the more eastern, while Tonty 
took the middle passage. A little later all floated forth upon 
the blue waters of the Gulf. 

After claiming for France the wide territory drained by 
the great river they had traversed so long, the hardy ad- 
venturers turned the battered prows of their canoes once 
more up stream, their task accomplished. It was a hard 
struggle pushing steadily against that stiff current, but mile 
by mile they made it. La Salle, taken sick, lay helpless for 
some time at the mouth of the Arkansas, but Tonty was 
hurried forward to far-away Michillimackinac, from whence 
he was to send word of their important discoveries to Canada, 
and then return to the Illinois. There he was directed to 
build a fort, and draw together the nucleus for an Algonquin 
Indian colony, thus carrying out the plan long formed in 
the mind of La Salle for a permanent establishment. 

Of that lonely trip up the long stretch of water-ways — 
the Mississippi, the Illinois, the Des Plaines, the Chicago, 
and the great lake — little record remains. Those weeks 
of continuous toil and hardship amid the dreary wilderness 
were but the common things of this frontier life, and not 
worthy of being mentioned. He was accompanied by 
Brossard, Cauchois, Maso, and a Saco Indian. Like all 
else in his life, the work given him was thoroughly accom- 
plished. By September he had reached Michillimackinac; 
two months later he was again back upon the Illinois, and 
in December had actually commenced the building of Fort 



THE FASCINATING STORT OF TO NTT 8i 

St. Louis. The point selected was the summit of that 
great natural curiosity now known as " Starved Rock," on 
the opposite side of the river a few miles below Ottawa. 
Rising directly from the water, a sheer wall of stone for 
one hundred and twenty-five feet jutting far out over the 
wide stream, its western brow reared high above the tops of 
great forest trees below, its eastern side impregnable because 
of a wide, deep gorge, no more perfect natural fortification 
could have been found. The cliff was accessible only from 
the rear, where, with extreme difficulty, a man might succeed 
in climbing up along a steep and narrow passage. Here, 
laboring all Winter, now joined by La Salle, Tonty built his 
entrenchments — cut away the forest surmounting the rocky 
summit, erected store-houses, and log-huts in which to 
quarter his men, and finally dragged timber up the difficult 
pathway, from the plain below, encircling all with a log 
palisade. While he was thus at work La Salle held council 
here and there with the scattered Indian tribes throughout 
that country, gathering them together in one vast confedera- 
tion of Algonquins on the site of the old-time town of the 
Illinois. Fearful still of the threatening Iroquois, they 
gathered about this rock castle, in Parkman's words, " like 
timorous peasantry of the Middle Ages," seeking the protec- 
tion of French power. 

Almost at once three hundred cabins were reared on the 
plain below, and as Spring advanced toward Summer Tonty 
— who was most of the time virtually in command of this 
fortress — must have gazed upon a strange and marvellous 
scene, as he looked off from those log ramparts. The beau- 
tiful valley of the Illinois would lie before him like a map, 
bounded in the dim distance by the far-away bluffs. The 
river spread directly beneath, a silvery stream, diversified 
by numerous green-clad islands, and sentinelled by forest 
trees, until finally disappearing in the far-off haze of the 
horizon. Across, amid that sea of prairie stretching back 



82 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

from the bank of the stream, were the clustered Indian 
lodges, in groups of villages, where squaws labored, warriors 
lounged idly in the sun, and naked children played in the 
shadows. Everywhere, as far as the eye could wander, arose 
the smoke of tepees. Here were Illinois, Shawnees, Abena- 
kis, Miamis, Mohegans, as motley a collection of aborigines 
as were ever gathered in peaceful intercourse, at one time 
reaching the surprising total of twenty thousand souls. 

Here, until the Autumn of 1683, La Salle and Tonty 
remained, with their little guard of Frenchmen, amid that 
vast surrounding concourse of savages. Then La Salle de- 
parted on his final trip to France, and Tonty was left there 
alone, and in supreme command of the Illinois country — 
its first governor. Nor was he ever again privileged to look 
upon the loved face of his great chief. There on that isolated 
rock of St. Louis, patient, courageous, manful to the last, 
he did his full duty, and, excepting the short time when De 
Baugy ruled, held his solitary post for six years, the utter- 
most sentinel of French power in all that wild Western 
wilderness. The details of that lonely occupancy, its con- 
stant vigils, its dealing with timorous Algonquins and re- 
vengeful Iroquois, its exploration of unknown country, its 
struggles with mutinous Frenchmen, the treachery within, 
the cruel savagery without, have never been told in written 
story. But the hours of loneliness and despair, the long 
waiting for word from the absent La Salle, the sturdy per- 
formance of duty unrewarded, stamp this one-armed Italian 
soldier, stern, kindly, and capable, as a true hero of chivalry. 

But meanwhile Le Barre, urged to action by the fur 
traders of Mackinac, and other jealous interests much nearer 
at home, had not been idle. Two officers, bearing special 
orders against La Salle's projects, were despatched westward, 
Sieur de La Durantaye, of the regiment of Carignan-Salieres, 
to Mackinac, and the Chevalier de Baugy, of the King's 
Dragoons, to Fort St. Louis. Peremptory orders were sent 



THE FASCINATING STORY OF TONTT 83 

to La Salle commanding him to report in person without 
delay to the governor at Montreal. Somewhere between the 
Fox and the Kankakee Rivers De Baugy and La Salle met, 
exchanged messages and parted, the former continuing his 
journey to Fort St. Louis, where Tonty, acting under the 
instructions of his chief, gave him soldierly greeting. All 
that Winter the two lived together, not altogether in harmony, 
while the one commanded for the Canadian governor, 
the other for La Salle. In March the Iroquois swept sud- 
denly down upon them, and these two, mustering their few 
Frenchmen and Indian allies, fought side by side, while for 
six days the ferocious savages assailed the Rock in hopeless 
attempt at dislodging its defenders. On the twenty-first 
of May, Durantaye, accompanied by Father Allouez, and a 
party of sixty Frenchmen, reached the fort. They came 
ostensibly for the purpose of relieving the garrison, but 
brought with them orders to Tonty to yield up the command 
entirely to De Baugy. Loyal to the instructions left him by 
La Salle, he obeyed the distasteful order, and, almost alone, 
departed in his solitary canoe for that far-off Canada which 
he had not seen for six years. One can almost picture the 
sad scene of that departure; the few faithful ones, with 
Boisrondet in their midst, gathering by the shore to say 
farewell, while above, peering down from the palisades, 
the others rejoiced over their apparent victory. 

But this was not destined to be for long. La Salle had 
found the ear of the king, and his lieutenant. La Forest, 
bore back with him to Canada from France a communica- 
tion to La Barre which made that governor's ears tingle, 
and caused him to rescind his action hastily and restore 
Tonty to his command in the Illinois. Late in June, 1684, 
bearing the order with him, the Italian entered the fort gate 
and handed a copy to De Baugy. The same day the dragoon, 
accompanied by his followers, departed for Mackinac, 
leaving Tonty in loneliness and complete control. Of what 



84 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

he accomplished at St. Louis, following this date, we know 
but little. He was ever a man of action, not of words. We 
catch glimpses of him here and there throughout the Illinois 
country, exercising his power and influence among the tribes, 
and pushing out along new lines of discovery and trade. 
Once he was at Mackinac, seeking news of La Salle, and 
while there rejoiced to learn that La Barre was no longer 
governor, but had been succeeded by the Marquis de Denon- 
ville. Once, he journeyed eastward, accompanied by all 
the Frenchmen he dared withdraw from the fort, and numer- 
ous Indian allies, to take gallant part in battle against the 
Iroquois, being companion on that campaign with Duran- 
taye, Du Lhut, and La Forest. On his return he brought 
back with him a number of French families, together with 
wives, sisters, and sweethearts of the garrison, to make the 
wilderness life more endurable. 

Again he made that long journey to Michillimackinac, 
his heart anxious to learn something of what had become of 
La Salle. While there he heard that a trader who had 
touched at Mackinac Island bore with him a letter from De 
Denonville, praising his work in the Illinois country, and 
requesting an audience at Montreal. But at the same time 
rumors reached him also that his chief had met with disaster 
in the South, of his landing on the coast of Louisiana, and 
the subsequent loss of his ships. This decided Tonty. For 
him to learn of La Salle's predicament was to act at once. 
Immediately he turned his canoes down Lake Michigan 
with the determination of forming a company at Fort St. 
Louis for an expedition of rescue to the Gulf. It was late 
Fall, and his voyage a stormy one. Ice formed so heavily 
that the canoes had to be abandoned, and for three hundred 
miles the little party toiled along the shore-line on foot, thus 
finally reaching the newly constructed fort at Chicago where 
Durantaye was then in command. A brief stop here, and 
Tonty pushed on to St. Louis, where he at once matured 
his plans for the relief of La Salle. 



THE FASCINATING STORT OF TO NTT 85 

La Forest, leaving Frontenac to the charge of his lieu- 
tenant, came west hastily to assume command of St. Louis, 
with its little garrison of thirty-one white men, during Tonty's 
absence. The latter took with him twenty-five Frenchmen 
and eleven Indians. Pushing their way through the ice to 
the Mississippi, they swept down that mighty stream clear 
to its mouth, meeting with no unusual adventure on the 
way. There they found merely "a solitude, a voiceless 
desolation of river, marsh, and sea." East and west the 
anxious searchers explored that dreary coast for thirty 
leagues, but all in vain. The loved commander for whom 
they sought so faithfully, eager to assist him in his adversity, 
was even then aimlessly wandering on the distant plains of 
Texas. Disheartened and baffled at this failure of his 
search, Tonty turned his prows once again toward his fortified 
rock castle on the Illinois. There was his duty; there he 
must remain until word came from his chief. 

Who can picture the intense anxiety with which he waited 
the coming to him of news from out that vast wilderness, the 
hours he hung above those rude palisades staring down 
the silent river, the patience of his long vigil, his heart ever 
troubled by the unknown fate of his absent friend .'' Here 
at last, in September, 1687, ragged, disheartened, half- 
crazed with the sufferings of their long journey, straggled 
in the miserable remnant of La Salle's last expedition — the 
two Caveliers, uncle and nephew, Douay, De Marie, and 
Teissier. Tonty, at the time of their arrival, being absent, 
engaged in a campaign against the distant Iroquois, they 
repaid all the courtesies of his lieutenant, Bellefontaine, 
with a lie, stating that La Salle yet remained alive and well 
on the lower river. To Tonty, on his final return, this base 
falsehood was again repeated, and Cavelier even had the 
meanness to draw upon him for four thousand livres in furs 
in La Salle's name. 

The miserable fugitives departed eastward in March, 



86 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

1688, supplied with everything the fort could furnish, but 
Henri de Tonty, remaining on his isolated rock of St. Louis, 
did not learn the truth of the cowardly assassination of his 
chief until late September, when he was visited by Couture, 
and two Indians from the Arkansas. His action was imme- 
diate and intensely characteristic of the man. He might yet 
save the remnant of the despairing colony, and hunt down 
the cowardly murderers. For him decision ever spelt action. 
By December he had left Fort St. Louis, travelling in a 
single wooden canoe, accompanied only by five Frenchmen, 
a Shawnee warrior, and two Indian slaves. By the twenty- 
eighth of March he was on Red River, marching alone into 
hostile Indian villages boldly demanding the murderers of 
his chief. With only two men remaining faithful to his 
service he pushed recklessly on into the far interior, facing 
deadly peril at every step of the way, the frightened fugitives 
fleeing before him, and seeking safety among distant tribes. 
At last every trace of their presence suddenly disappeared, 
and he was led to believe, through crafty Indian lies, that 
those he sought so persistently had already perished in the 
wilderness. 

Laden with bitter disappointment, the three avengers 
finally turned reluctantly back. They found the country 
they must traverse flooded by a sudden rise in the streams. 
As Parkman describes it, " Sometimes they waded to the 
knees, sometimes to the neck, sometimes pushed their slow 
way on rafts. They slept on logs placed side by side to lift 
them above the mud and water, and fought their way with 
hatchets through inundated cane fields." From hunger 
they were forced to eat their dogs. " I never in my life," 
writes Tonty, " suflFered so much." When one recalls that 
this Italian was never a robust man, and that he possessed 
only one hand, the desperation of his position becomes more 
apparent. They reached the Mississippi on the eleventh of 
July, the Arkansas villages on the thirty-first. Here Tonty 



THE FASCINATING STORT OF TO NTT 87 

was stricken down by an attack of fever, and it was not until 
September that he again attained the fort upon the IlHnois. 
Of what followed in his life we know but little. In 1699 
he still commanded on that rock of St. Louis. In 1702, by 
royal order, he was bidden to reside on the Mississippi, and 
the Illinois establishment was abandoned. During that 
same year he joined D'Iberville in lower Louisiana, and was 
despatched by that officer from Mobile to influence the 
Chickasaws. From that moment he disappears from history, 
not even his death having been made matter of record.* 
We only know that somewhere in the midst of that vast 
wilderness, for the regeneration of which he had fought and 
suffered, doubtless passed away this gallant comrade, this 
loyal friend, this incomparable knight of the frontier, this 
soldier and gentleman. 

* There is an Indian legend that, white-haired and feeble with age, 
accompanied by a single faithful Indian companion, in 1 7 1 8 he returned 
to St. Louis to die. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE FRIARS 

IN the very advance of exploration and settlement, long 
the foremost figures on the far French frontier, were 
the priests of the black robe and of the gray. Heroic 
beyond words, pathetic beyond expression, is the simple 
story of their labors, hardships, and defeats. Nor is it 
possible to say that the greater meed of honor lies with either 
the Jesuit or the Recollet Order. Both alike, in their chosen 
missionaries, exhibited devotion, patience, and heroism to 
the highest possible degree, and although the records of the 
former are far the more complete and easily accessible, yet 
their more modest brethren did, within somewhat narrower 
limits, equally notable work throughout this Illinois wilder- 
ness. Marquette, Allouez, Gravier, and Mermet wore the 
black robe; Hennepin, Membre, Ribourde, and Zenobe wore 
the gray. Yet final political conditions in Canada favored 
the Jesuits, and they consequently became more numerous 
and influential throughout the early settlements. 

With the single exception of Father Senat, who, accom- 
panying D'Artaguette's ill-fated expedition to the south, 
was burned to death at the stake by the Chickasaws, the 
self-sacrificing priests of the Illinois were not destined to 
suffer martyrdom through torture. Few Indian races were 
ever so merciless as the Iroquois, and none other, save under 
great provocation, chose unarmed priests for their victims. 
Yet, if constant suffering, hardships innumerable, patience, 
and a life of rigorous self-denial, with death at last in the 
drear wilderness, be an open door to true martyrdom, then 
many an almost unknown priest of the Illinois should have 



THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE FRIJRS 89 

his name written high on that roll of honor beside Jogues, 
Brebeuf, Daniel, Bressani, and Lallemant. Oftentimes 
in that wilderness it required greater heroism to live than to 
die. Certain it is that these pioneers of Christ, upheld by 
the zeal of faith, penetrated every nook and corner of this 
great wilderness country, zealously seeking the salvation of 
souls. They encountered danger and suffering in every 
possible form; the perils of nature, the inhumanity of savages. 
Some were drowned, some starved to death, some, losing 
their way, perished alone in the dread desolation. Yet none 
hesitated before the call of duty, and wherever a soldier of 
the Cross fell, another came forward to walk unhesitatingly 
in his footsteps. That the years have proven all this to have 
been comparatively useless labor, and that neither Jesuit nor 
Recollet has left permanent impress on the inhabitants of 
the Illinois country — either red or white — in no way 
detracts from the heroism of the effort, the magnificent 
courage, patience, and fortitude of these wandering mission- 
aries. Whatever the mistakes of their officers, or the mis- 
direction of their zeal, these soldiers in the ranks, wearing 
their coarse robes of black and gray, did their complete duty, 
and deserve the applause of the world, the " Well done " of 
God. 

Among them all, Marquette, a Jesuit, and Hennepin, 
a Recollet, stand forth conspicuous for the peculiar services 
performed. The former, as companion of Joliet, was first 
to explore the great water-ways, and earliest to preach the 
Gospel to Illinois Indians. Already stricken by disease 
when he stood before that great concourse on the Utica 
meadows, it was not given unto Marquette to carry forward 
to completion the work of his heart, but he had laid the 
foundation upon which another brother of his Order was to 
build. Nor was that brother long forthcoming; but it is 
to be regretted that we know so little of what occurred at 
old Kaskaskia between the departure of Marquette and the 



90 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

coming of La Salle. Those six years are all but recordless. 
Yet this we know. It was in May, 1675, that Marquette 
died on the dreary Michigan shore, and it was in October, 
1676, that the veteran missionary of Lake Superior, Father 
Claude Allouez, left De Pere, accompanied by two boatmen, 
to take up the waiting labors on the far-away Illinois. We 
have glimpses of his desperate voyage down the storm- 
racked shores of Michigan, of suffering and hardships during 
the months of that dreary Winter — just such little vistas 
as these missionaries sometimes give of their hard life 
toil, as though they felt it weakness to complain. It was 
Spring before the struggling three reached the mouth of the 
Chicago, and met there members of the Illinois tribe, and it 
was April 27 when their eyes first beheld the great Indian 
village where Marquette had preached. At that time it 
contained three hundred and fifty-one cabins, yet it is almost 
impossible to discover how long Father Allouez remained 
there in his first ministry, probably until the coming of La 
Salle, toward whom he ever held great enmity. Once during 
his stay the town suffered an attack by the Iroquois, which 
was repulsed. Beyond this but little fragments remain 
regarding the life of Allouez, although he was for some years 
in the Illinois country, ever a strenuous worker. We catch 
a glimpse of him lying sick at Fort St. Louis in the Fall of 
1687, and he died on the Miami River two years later. 

Hennepin, Membre, and Ribourde were the priests who 
accompanied La Salle; they were of the Recollet Order, and 
the gray robe held ascendency in the Illinois country so long 
as that commandant exercised control at Fort St. Louis. Of 
these three, Ribourde, already an old man for such adven- 
tures, met death by the tomahawk in the hands of wandering 
Kickapoos; Membre served long and faithfully, accompany- 
ing La Salle to the Gulf on his last expedition, and proving 
his zeal and devotion in many ways. Undoubtedly the 
leading friar of his Order to serve in the Illinois country, he 



THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE FRIJRS 91 

met his tragic death in Texas soon after the murder of his 
great leader. It was Hennepin's good fortune to receive a 
special mission of exploration which has written his name 
more deeply on history than any of the others. From Fort 
Crevecoeur, on the last day of February, 1680, he was de- 
spatched down the Illinois in a canoe, accompanied by two 
voyageurs — Michel Accau, who was the real leader of the 
party, and Le Picard du Gay. Their purpose, under La 
Salle's instructions, was the careful exploration of the upper 
Mississippi. The work thus assigned them was accomplished 
with fair success, but unfortunately for Hennepin's reputation 
for truthfulness, the various accounts he afterwards pub- 
lished of his adventures and achievements, were in much 
so palpably false, as to leave even his truths long discredited. 
The facts seem to be that the little party proceeded up the 
Mississippi, hunting a wide variety of game on their way, 
until the eleventh or twelfth of April, when they landed to 
repair their canoe. Suddenly a fleet of Sioux boats, manned 
with warriors, swept down the river, and made them pris- 
oners. Suffering great hardships, they were taken north, 
passing Lake Pepin, and finally reaching the Indian villages 
in the vicinity of Mille Lac, Wisconsin. Here Hennepin 
spent the Spring and Summer in hunting, practising as a 
physician among the savages, and studying the Sioux lan- 
guage. The three men were finally rescued from their 
wearisome captivity by the opportune arrival of the famous 
coureur de boisy Daniel Greysolon du Lhut, with four com- 
panions on a fur-trading expedition. The next Winter was 
spent in the huts of friendly Jesuit missionaries at Green 
Bay, after which Hennepin made his way to France, never 
again to appear in the Illinois country. 

Membre, while on his first visit to the Illinois country, 
made a journey to the Miamis on the river St. Joseph, and 
was also in a village of the Kaskaskias, probably somewhere 
on the Kankakee. He had, however, little success in 



92 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

converting the savages, although he baptized several, includ- 
ing the famous chief, Chassagonache. The latter was later 
reported as dying under the hands of the medicine men of 
his tribe, utterly forgetful of the good missionary. These 
early laborers were greatly distressed by a lack of wine for 
the celebration of the mass, but this was later relieved by the 
abundance of wild grapes discovered along the river bottom. 
A league distant from the great Indian village of the Illinois 
a cabin was transformed into a chapel, where such savages 
as could be interested were instructed in the mysteries. After 
the missionaries had been driven from the country by the Iro- 
quois, some of the dusky converts saved the chalice and 
sacerdotal vestments left in this chapel in the haste of retreat 
and brought them with reverent care to the distant mission 
at Green Bay, where Hennepin found them on his arrival 
there. When Membre finally departed on his mission to 
France for La Salle, never again to return to the Illinois, he 
sorrowfully summed up his labors in these words: " I cannot 
say that my little efforts produced fruit. With regard to 
these nations perhaps some one by a secret effort of 
grace has profited; this God only knows. All we have done 
has been to see the state of these nations, and to open the 
way to the Gospel, and the missionaries; having baptized 
only two infants whom I saw at the point of death, and who 
in fact died in our presence." 

The work accomplished by the few friars of St. Francis 
coming to this wilderness amounted then to little by their 
own confession, although they may be safely said to have 
been in complete ascendency during all the time of La Salle's 
command of the Illinois. At Fort Crevecoeur the Indian 
mission was carried on until the Iroquois came, and later, 
Membre remained for several years at Fort St. Louis, acting 
as chaplain to the garrison, and missionary among the 
surrounding tribes. Fathers Douay and Le Clerc also saw 
service in the Illinois country, and it is highly probable that 



THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE FRIJRS 93 

others of the gray robe were there likewise to assist in this 
labor, although their names have not been preserved. Some 
evidence exists to show that the Recollets never wholly aban- 
doned the country until the English obtained possession. As 
late as 1768 the Jesuit Meurin writes about removing the 
bodies of two priests from Fort Chartres to Prairie du Rocher. 
These were Fathers Gagnon and Collet, priests of St. Anne 
of New Chartres, the latter a Recollet. 

The " Mission of the Immaculate Conception," which 
was the name given by Marquette to the Jesuit station at 
Kaskaskia on the Illinois, languished sadly during all of 
La Salle's commandership, but on April 27, 1677, Father 
Allouez returned from his self-imposed exile, and again 
began active missionary work among the gathered tribes of 
Illinois Indians. Father James Gravier joined him there 
in 1690, and early became the leading spirit of the mission, 
although for three years their combined labor exhibited only 
very inadequate results. A little later than the date above 
given. Fathers Marest, Mermet, and Pinet came also to 
work in the Illinois country. Pinet was stationed near the 
present site of Chicago, where a mission had been established 
as early as 1698, but it is impossible to locate the earliest 
mission work of the others. They were probably at small 
stations now utterly forgotten. Father Rale was also in 
the Illinois country from 1692 to 1694, and Father Julien 
Binneteau was, at least, travelling upon this field as early 
as 1699, going west as far as the Mississippi River, but 
whether merely as a traveller, or in an endeavor to preach 
to the heathen, is not recorded. 

It is to be regretted that even in the Jesuit Relations no 
complete and connected account of the work done by these 
priests is to be found, nor even a satisfactory list of those 
actually engaged in Illinois service. At best we obtain but 
tantalizing glimpses here and there of the labor being at- 
tempted in the heart of this vast wilderness. After a short 



94 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

and unexplained absence from his post Father Jacques 
Gravier returned to labor with the Illinois tribes in April, 
1693. He was delighted to discover them in much better 
frame of mind for ministry, and for the first time the work 
appeared to prosper, and to promise definite results. He 
built and dedicated a new chapel at the little French trading 
stockade near the Peoria straits, which was soon crowded 
with Indians anxious to hear him preach; but in the mean- 
time he became involved in an unfortunate quarrel with the 
chiefs, who apparently took little interest in his labor. In 
spite of much opposition and threatening he married Ako, 
a French fur trader, to the daughter of the chief of the Kas- 
kaskias. So great grew the interest in his work that the 
chapel had to be enlarged. From April to November he 
reports the baptism of two hundred and six persons. In 
September, 1700, Gravier undertook the long canoe voyage 
down the Mississippi to the lower French forts. While 
on this trying journey down the Illinois he discovered that 
the Kaskaskias were about to emigrate beyond the Missis- 
sippi from their overpowering fear of the Iroquois. Marest 
was then the priest stationed at this particular village. The 
two Jesuits, uniting their efforts, endeavored to induce the 
Indians to remain where they were, but, finding this impos- 
sible, accompanied them in their migration down the two 
rivers until a landing was finally effected within the present 
limits of Randolph County, and the second town of Kas- 
kaskia established. After a short delay here, Gravier 
proceeded on his voyage down the river. The exact date of 
this settlement is unknown, but it was probably in 1698 or 
1699. Returning later to the Illinois country, Gravier became 
missionary to the Peorias. Trouble occurring among them, 
he was shot at with arrows, and so badly injured that he 
nearly lost his life. Marest, learning of his condition, made 
a hasty overland journey to his assistance from Kaskaskia, 
but the stricken priest had to be taken down the river as far 




A "LONG-ROBE" OF THE WILDERNESS 



SHOWING THE DRESS OF THE EARLY MISSIONARIES 



THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE FRIJRS 95 

as Mobile in order to reach a surgeon. He died in Louisiana, 
April, 1708. 

Somewhere about 1700 Father Francis Pinet established 
the missions at Cahokia and Tamaroa, for the tribes bearing 
these names. The point selected was about sixty miles 
north of the Kaskaskia site and almost opposite the present 
St. Louis. A small French fur-trading post had previously 
been built there, and may have been even then occupied. 
The following year, however, this mission was transferred 
from the control of the Jesuits, and given over to local 
priests sent out from the Seminary at Quebec. Father 
Burger was the first of these to have charge here. He died 
some years after, and Marest, forgetting in that hour all 
jealousy between the priestly orders, walked from Kaskaskia 
to conduct the funeral service. These Seminary priests 
began coming into the country as early as the Fall of 1698, 
and were at first warmly welcomed and cordially entertained 
by the few Jesuits then on the field. Later we find in letters 
much bitter complaint regarding their encroaching labors 
and ofiiciousness. Toward the last, however, the work 
seems to have naturally divided itself, the Seminary priests 
confining themselves almost entirely to the care of the 
French settlers in the small villages, and leaving the scattered 
Indian missions entirely to the Jesuits. 

By 1702 Pinet was stationed at Kaskaskia, engaged 
almost exclusively in Indian work. His labors were highly 
successful, the small log chapel being unable to hold those 
desiring to listen to his earnest words. Associated with him 
at this time was Father Binneteau, who later lost his life 
while accompanying the Kaskaskias on one of their Summer 
hunts into the interior. Exhausted by the severe travel and 
exposure, he fell sick and passed away. It was but shortly 
after that Father Pinet also died, and then Marest came 
down to Kaskaskia and took up the work. In August, 1702, 
Father Jean Mermet accompanied Juchereau's expedition 



96 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

to establish a French trading-fort somewhere near the mouth 
of the Ohio. The point selected was close beside the present 
site of the city of Metropolis, and here the voyageurs laid the 
first foundations of what later became Fort Massac, by 
building a log stockade, while the priest established a mission 
near by which he called the Assumption. Mermet remained 
here preaching with success for three or four years, the 
southern Indians coming in their bark canoes down the Cum- 
berland and Tennessee Rivers to hear him repeat the 
Gospel story. In 1706 we discover Mermet back once more 
in Kaskaskia, assisting Marest, his mission of the Assumption 
having been broken up through Indian trouble, and the 
hasty dispersal of the fur traders. 

Mermet was, in many respects, the most noteworthy of 
the many Jesuit priests laboring in the Illinois country. It 
is said of him: 

" The gentle virtues and fervid eloquence of Mermet made him 
the soul of the mission at Kaskaskia. At early dawn his pupils 
came to church, dressed neatly and modestly, each in a deer-skin, 
or robe sewn together from several skins. After receiving lessons, 
they chanted canticles ; mass was then said in presence of all the 
Christians, the French and the converts — the women on one side 
and the men on the other. From prayers and instructions the 
missionaries proceeded to visit the sick and administer medicine, 
and their skill as physicians did more than all the rest to win con- 
fidence. In the afternoon the catechism was taught in the presence 
of the young and old, when everyone, without distinction of rank or 
age, answered the questions of the missionary. At evening all 
would assemble at the chapel for instruction, for prayer, and to 
chant the hymns of the Church. On Sunday and festivals, even 
after vespers, a homily was pronounced ; at the close of the day 
parties would meet in houses to recite the chaplets in alternate 
choirs, and sing psalms till late at night. Saturday and Sunday 
were the days appointed for confession and communion, and every 
convert confessed once in a fortnight. The success of this mission 
was such that marriages of the French immigrants were sometimes 



THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE FRIARS 97 

solemnized with the daughters of the Illinois according to the rites 
of the Catholic Church." 

By 1712 the French population had increased to consid- 
erable proportions, most largely concentrated at Kaskaskia, 
although a few other smaller towns were established in the 
immediate neighborhood. Mermet, full of the spirit of 
martyrdom, nearly lost his life ministering to sick Mascoutins 
during an epidemic, but his lack of strength prevented him 
accompanying the Indians on their annual hunt, and Marest 
took his place. In 171 1 the latter journeyed across the 
country to visit the Peorias, who had been left without a 
missionary since their treacherous attack on Father Gravier. 
Finding them now in much better spirit Father de Ville was 
despatched there to take up the work the following year. 
Marest died in Kaskaskia in 17 14, and two years later 
his life-long friend and companion. Father Mermet, like- 
wise passed away. Both were reinterred in the Kaskaskia 
church by Father Le BouUenger in 1727. A complete list 
of the missionaries laboring in this Illinois country during 
the period of French rule is impossible to obtain. Among the 
Jesuits we know that Father Kereben died here in 1728, 
Largilier in 17 14, and Guymoneau in 1736. Father Senat 
had been in the Illinois work about eighteen months when 
he accompanied D'Artaguette on his disastrous expedition 
to Mississippi, only to perish at the stake. Father D'Outre- 
lean was reported as badly wounded by Indians firing on his 
canoe while on his way down the river from Illinois about 
1730. In 1750 Father Vivier, then residing at Cahokia, 
writes that over six hundred Indians had been baptized, but 
that French brandy, introduced by voyageurs, was ruining the 
work of the mission. At this time De Guyenne was associ- 
ated with him at Cahokia, Watrin being stationed at Kas- 
kaskia, and Meurin at Peoria. Five years later five priests 
are reported in the neighborhood, with two lay helpers, the 
fifth priest being Julian de Verney. Xavier de Guyenne, 



98 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

cure at Fort Chartres, was Father Superior. He died in 1762, 
after thirty-six years of active service in the w^ilderness. 

Early in 1763 trouble came to the Jesuits in France, and 
they w^ere expelled the country. Their persecution followed 
all over the world wherever France held sway, and in Septem- 
ber of that same year the long expected order arrived in this 
distant Illinois country to expel the priests and confiscate 
their property. However the Order may have failed in the 
salvation of savages, they had proven most successful in 
the accumulation of worldly stores. In Kaskaskia alone they 
possessed a church, a chapel, and a Jesuits' house, the latter 
valued at forty thousand piasters, and all built of stone. 
Their plantation consisted of two hundred and forty arpents 
of land, and was well stocked with cattle. They also owned 
and operated a brewery. All this property was promptly 
seized by the French commandant, while the Jesuit priests, 
with the single exception of Father Meurin, were driven 
from the country. The latter, then an extremely old man, 
broken down by hard frontier service, was permitted to re- 
main, but it is not probable he continued to exercise his 
office. His death occured at Prairie du Rocher in 1777. 

So all these efforts of one hundred years of sacrifice, toil, 
and exile came to naught. Nothing material remains to-day, 
in all this Illinois country, to recall these early labors of Jesuit 
and Recollet. The great silent wilderness amid whose 
solitudes and desolation they wandered in religious zeal has 
become the abiding-place of civilization, the vast prairies are 
smiling farms, the savage-haunted streams are highways of 
commerce, but the black robe and the gray have alike van- 
ished like a forgotten dream. Yet, surely, even while we 
trace the mistakes of administration which resulted in such 
waste of efTort and of lives, we can give full honor to the 
magnificent sacrifice, the supreme heroism, of those men who 
sunk their all in unrewarded toil in the heart of the black 
wilderness. With all her later names of honor, Illinois can 



THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE FRIAR S 99 

not afford to ignore Marquette, Gravier,Marest, and Mermet, 
those humble soldiers of the Cross who died in her service. 
Nor can any mere arrangement of names and dates justly 
tell their story. Thousands of leagues in the wilderness, 
oftentimes in advance of all their race, dwelling amid the 
squalor of Indian camps, travelling hundreds of miles on 
foot, parched in Summer, frozen in Winter, hungry, footsore, 
discouraged, facing death almost every day, their sole com- 
panions savages, their home the silent wood or desolate 
prairie, these priests struggled on, upheld by their faith, 
inspired by a reward beyond this world. Of their suffering 
and hardships they wrote little; in all their reports there is 
scarcely a line of complaint regarding physical hardships. 
Hunger and cold, exposure and danger, were merely incidents 
of their service — they went wherever they were sent; they 
did their work in silent patience, whether the end was des- 
^tined to be life or death. These men, in their frayed robes, 
aided by their donnesj or oftentimes native companions, 
explored the water-ways of the Illinois, pressing their frail 
canoes up narrow streams. On foot, and frequently alone, 
they toiled over the Indian trails, bearing with them scarcely 
more than breviary and rosary, their one consuming desire 
the salvation of souls. 

Little mission stations sprang up here and there through- 
out the wilderness. To-day the very locations of most of 
these are unknown, yet there was scarcely a stream of any 
importance that had not been the labor spot of a " long robe " 
— mere dots in the surrounding savagery, like those estab- 
lished at Chicago, Peoria, and at the mouth of the Des 
Moines. We cannot even tell the names of the men who 
toiled in them, how they lived, or where they died. Yet it 
is safe to say there was little difference in the stations. There 
would be a log chapel, with a few houses nestled close. If 
intended for permanency, a general storehouse and work- 
shop would be added, the whole fenced about with log 



loo HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

palisades, thus forming a rude stockaded fort, surrounded by 
clearings and cultivated fields. In their outside work, such 
as building and cultivating, the priests usually had others to 
assist them. Occasionally the savages could be induced to 
work, but generally a few lay brethren were attached to all 
stations of importance. These were men accustomed to 
manual labor and frontier life, able either to guide canoes 
or handle tools or weapons as need arose. In the earlier 
years of missionary effort, in Canada, and along the upper 
lakes, these were commonly volunteers, inspired by devo- 
tion to the cause, and serving without pay, and were then 
known as donnes, or "given men." But later, and, indeed, 
during nearly all the period covered by the Illinois missions, 
hired men, called engages^ were employed. These did all 
the manual labor about the stations, and accompanied the 
fathers as canoemen on their journeys, besides acting as 
the intermediaries between the priests and Indians in a 
rather profitable fur trade, whereby the missions greatly 
prospered. 

It is easy now to criticise these Jesuit enthusiasts, and to 
point out the causes of their failures. But the truth and jus- 
tification is they were ever battling for their own existence. At 
the time when Marquette first explored the Illinois country, 
the religious exaltation of the earlier Canadian missions had 
already seriously declined. The marvellous esprit de corps 
of the Jesuits, that total extinction of self, which has dis- 
tinguished their work throughout the world, remained as 
strong as ever in this wilderness, but the same grand enthu- 
siasm was not behind it. Canada had advanced from a mere 
church mission; it had become a state colony, and the civil 
power was constantly pressing the religious farther into the 
background. In their Western mission fields the repre- 
sentatives of the Church naturally desired to rule supreme; 
they dreaded the fur traders, not only because they inter- 
fered with their spiritual labor, and perverted their religious 



THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE FRIJRS loi 

teachings, but because their brandy corrupted the converts. 
La Salle, behind his purposes of exploration, as Parkman 
points out, was a fur trader; even more, "he aimed at occupa- 
tion, fortification, settlement." In every step he took he 
was directly in their way, and as a consequence they were 
compelled to fight him with every weapon in their power. 

On his part he sought to counteract their efi^orts by 
supplanting them with RecoUets, and in this he received the 
support of Count Frontenac. In his letters to France the 
latter is continually asking for more friars of this order. " Not," 
as Parkman says, " because he had any peculiar fondness 
for ecclesiastics of any kind, regular or secular, white, black, 
or gray; but he wanted the Recollets to oppose to the Jesuits. 
He had no fear of these mendicant disciples of St. Francis." 
And La Salle wanted them, and for precisely the same reason. 
So it was that during all the earlier stage of French occupancy 
in the Illinois it was a continual struggle between the two 
Orders for supremacy. While La Salle remained in control, 
the gray robes ruled the wilderness; but the moment the 
great commander departed, the superior discipline of the 
Jesuits prevailed, and at once their priests were everywhere, 
influencing alike savages and Frenchmen, and building 
their isolated chapels throughout the wilderness. So for a 
hundred years they toiled, suffered, and died, and to-day 
there remains scarcely a memory of their self-sacrificing 
labor. 



CHAPTER VII 

OLD WATER-WAYS AND THEIR VOYAGEURS 

WHILE English colonists were scarcely venturing be- 
yond view of the Atlantic surges, their utmost advance 
extending merely a few miles inland, the daring French voy- 
ageurs were breasting the stormy waters of the vast interior 
lakes, and even bartering for furs amid the black lodges of 
the far Dacotahs. While Eliot, the famous Puritan mis- 
sionary, was laboring among the Massachusetts Indians 
within a few days' ride of Boston, priests of the black robe 
and of the gray robe were building their rude log chapels on 
the bleak shores of far-away Superior, and exploring that 
vast river which cleaves the continent in twain. Yet this 
difference was not so much one of boldness and energy as 
of opportunity. The French advance westward was expe- 
dited by natural advantages, the most marked being the 
superb system of water-ways constantly inviting them to the 
interior. 

From the mouth of the St. Lawrence, westward to the far 
plains of the Red River and the Missouri, extends an almost 
uninterrupted chain of water communication, which the 
French were quick to explore, and utilize for both commercial 
and spiritual purposes. The Canadian voyageur, the engage 
of fur trader or of mission, early became an expert canoesman, 
and soon developed into the finest river boatman of the 
world. Actuated by love of gain or by spiritual enthusiasm, 
they pressed their adventurous passage up and down the 
swirling currents of unnamed streams, seeking convenient 
portages, and thus ever attaining greater distance into the 
mysterious Western wilderness. The broad Ottawa, flowing 



OLD WATER-WAYS 103 

through the grim Canadian forest, brought them within easy 
reach of Huron, and a Httle later their venturesome prows 
were skirting the rocky shores of the vast inland lakes, and ex- 
ploring those rivers flowing into them from out the farther 
West. To push up against these streams was merely a ques- 
tion of time, so that while New England yet largely remained 
unexplored, the jleur de lis floated over all the central 
portion of the continent, and the French tongue was spoken in 
Indian lodges from Superior to the Gulf. 

They were largely rough, uneducated men who wrought 
these historic changes, — swarthy of face, small and wiry 
of body, half savage in manner and dress, meeting every 
hardship with a smile, and beguiling the weary miles of 
tiresome travel with merry song and quip. Plunged for 
years at a time into the dreary depths of wilderness, sur- 
rounded by constant danger, accustomed to death and 
privation, to incredible toil and protracted isolation, for ever 
fronting the unknown and mysterious, they developed a 
reckless daring in their calling which can but awaken admi- 
ration. Little higher in grade than the naked savages with 
whom they so freely consorted, and among whom they often 
married, they yet lived and died Frenchmen, loyal to the 
traditions of their race, and ever responsive to any demand 
upon their patriotism. 

Among these appeared leaders of a vastly diff^erent type. 
Some were ambitious fur traders, with financial influence at 
Montreal, and authority in the lodges — men shrewd, often 
unscrupulous, willing to risk much for gain. Soldiers and 
explorers rode the waters also, seeking new power for 
France, bold, adventurous men, clad in the light mail of 
their century, laughing at all peril, fighting to win new do- 
main for their King, or at least a word of praise from his lips. 
And hither came also the Jesuit and Recollet priests, 
barefooted and emaciated, their purpose the salvation of the 
heathen, yielding up life gladly if only they might thus attain 



104 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

to martyrdom or rescue a soul from the fires of perdition. 
These were the three classes who led the advance into the 
wilderness, their helpers those half-savage voyageurs who 
wielded paddles and bore rifles at their order, their open 
doorway the innumerable water-courses ever inviting them 
onward. The story of their adventures, hardships, dangers, 
and exploits is as fascinating as romance, and from among 
them names have been written on the page of history — 
Marquette, Joliet, Du Lhut, La Salle, Tonty — never to be 
blotted out. 

Long before land trails crossed the Illinois prairies the 
great natural highways of both Indian and white commu- 
nication lay along the navigable streams. The discovered 
relics of lost races are unearthed in the river bottoms; the 
more ancient Indian villages were upon the banks of streams; 
the earliest white settlements crept slowly in beside the 
water-ways. The first Frenchmen came into the Illinois 
country by means of canoes, and for many a year compara- 
tively little was definitely known regarding the land of the 
interior, away from the principal water-courses. These were 
the mainly marked features upon all the earlier French maps 
of the region, for along them flowed the fast increasing 
commerce in furs to far-away Montreal. The mission 
houses, the voyageurs^ camps, the traders' stockades, the 
forts of palisaded logs, the little isolated French villages 
dotting the wide wilderness, were all located beside navigable 
streams, or along the shores of lakes. Ever it was the 
gleaming water-way — inviting the boat in Summer, the sled 
in Winter — that pointed the easier path through thousands 
of leagues of wooded desolation, to the semi-civilization of 
Lower Canada. 

These open gateways leading into the Illinois country 
were both numerous and inviting. The great Lake of 
Michigan touched it upon the northeast, with portage of 
scarcely a mile leading to the southerly flow of the Des 



OLD WATER-WAYS 105 

Plaines, and that across an almost level prairie. When 
the voyageur had once dipped the sharp prow of his canoe in 
those silvery v^^aters, no obstacle of land lay between him 
and the blue surge of the Mexican Gulf. Before him 
stretched, unvexed, almost unruffled, a thousand leagues of 
magnificent water-way, ever tending southward. As early 
as 1673 Marquette passed over this route, northward bound, 
with his fur-trading companion and four engages, in birch- 
bark canoes, and ever after it was in constant use by the 
French. Along the entire western line rolled the vast Mis- 
sissippi, with many a side-stream leading into it from the 
east, nearly all having their sources within easy portage of 
the great lakes. Of these the Wisconsin, by portage from 
the Fox, was early found the most convenient, and remained 
long an extensively used highway from Green Bay westward. 
Rock River was also utilized to some extent by the fur traders, 
but was never esteemed a popular route for the longer journey, 
although the Fox was thus considerably used. Far to the 
south the Ohio — La Belle Riviere of the French — bore 
many a brave burden along its gleaming waters, while adven- 
turous prows pushed up the Wabash, the Kaskaskia, 
and numerous contributory streams. During the latter 
portion of the French military occupancy, the Ohio- Wabash 
route, with its easy portage to the Maumee, became quite a 
favorite for the transportation of troops destined for service 
along the English border, and in still later times this same 
Ohio proved a favorite gateway for inflowing American 
settlers from Virginia and the South. But during all the 
period of earliest exploration, the regime of the fur trader, 
and the one hundred and seventy years of French control, 
the most popular water route eastward to Canada followed 
the course of the Illinois. Its gentle current, and its total 
freedom from rapids, together with the easy portages to 
lake or to other streams, made it an ideal highway for boat 
travel, whether attained by way of the Des Plaines or the 
Kankakee. 



io6 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

It is somewhat peculiar in this connection to note that, 
while Marquette and Joliet on their return toward civilization 
in 1673 were guided by friendly Indians up the Des Plaines 
to the Chicago, and thence to the open lake but two miles 
away, six years later La Salle chose the longer, harder route 
leading into the Illinois country via the St. Joseph and the 
Kankakee. He had met Joliet since the return of the latter, 
and doubtless had learned their route from his own lips. 
He even passed down along the western shore of the great 
lake in a season of incessant storm, and possibly camped at 
the very mouth of the Chicago, yet amid intense hardships 
pressed on in his frail overloaded canoes entirely around the 
head of the lake to where he had appointed a rendezvous 
with Tonty on the river St. Joseph. Later the Des Plaines 
route became a favorite with both these hardy explorers, 
but their first entrance into the Illinois country was made 
by means of the narrow, swampy, reed-bordered Kankakee, 
along which for many miles the voyageurs scarcely found 
space in which to wield their paddles. 

The mouth of the Chicago River was from earliest times 
an important spot, the natural gateway leading into the 
Illinois country, the key to the entire water-way system of 
the State. There are evidences that it was so recognized, 
not only by the Indians, but also by those unknown races 
occupying this territory in ages gone. The earlier white 
explorers were quick to perceive its many advantages. The 
Indians gathered there in large numbers at certain seasons of 
the year, engaged in fishing and barter, although it is hardly 
probable any permanent village was established. The 
French early built a hut there in which to rest on their fre- 
quent journeys — or possibly merely utilized the remains 
of that one erected by Marquette's engages on the South 
Branch — and at times kept here a permanent establishment. 
La Salle, according to Mason, had a stockade here, with two 
men as garrison, as early as 1683, while a few years later the 



OLD WATER-WAYS 107 

Jesuits built a palisaded station just west of the forks of the 
stream. There is an Indian rumor that La Salle's fort 
stood not far from the later site of Fort Dearborn. Tonty 
says M. de la Durantaye commanded there in 1685. 

It is interesting to note the changes in nomenclature 
regarding the various Illinois water-ways. Few streams 
now bear the names originally bestowed, or those of record 
upon the earlier French maps. Lake Michigan is " Lac 
Mitchiganong, ou des Illinois"; Marquette called the Mis- 
sissippi, " Riviere de la Conception "; the Missouri, the " Peki- 
tanoui"; and the Ohio, the " Ouabouskiaou." He leaves 
the Wisconsin and the Illinois nameless. Another Jesuit 
map calls the Mississippi " Rivuiere Colbert," which is the 
name retained in Joliet's map as presented to Frontenac. 
In this latter, the Des Plaines is called " Riviere Divine." 
In his larger map appears for the first time the word " Mes- 
sasipi." On the map prepared by Randin, this same stream 
is called, " Riviere Buade." The great map of those early 
days was that drawn by Franquelin, about 1680. Here the 
Mississippi is called " Missisipi ou Riviere Colbert"; the 
Missouri, " Grande Riviere des Emissourittes, ou Missou- 
rits"; the Illinois, " Riviere des Ilinois ou Macopins," also 
"Ilinese"; the Ohio, " Fleuve St. Louis," and "La Belle 
Riviere." The Illinois River had also been named "Riviere 
Seignelay," and was so called by Hennepin. The St. Joseph 
was " Riviere des Miamis "; Peoria Lake is occasionally 
referred to as "Lake Dauphin" as is also Lake Michigan; 
Kickapoo Creek was given its Indian name, " Ar-cary "; 
Chicago on the Franquelin map is spelled '* Che-ke-gou "; 
the Wabash is the " Ouabache," and yet earlier the " St. 
Jerome." 

Along these streams, and upon the storm-lashed lake, 
many an odd craft, bearing many a strange company, invaded 
this Illinois wilderness. The earlier voyageursy those first 
French explorers, whether in priestly vesture bearing uplifted 



io8 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

crucifix, or in soldier garb with clanking sword at heel, 
pressed forward down these unknown water-ways in the 
lightly built, narrow canoes, such as were used by the Algon- 
quin Indian tribes of Canada. This crank boat, a mere 
layer of birch bark or of skin stretched over thin framework, 
capable of upbearing no more than four men and propelled 
by paddles, was easily transported from stream to stream 
through forests or over rocky bluffs, and with sharp stern 
and bow, was quickly controlled by skilled hands in rapids 
and turbulent water. It was peculiarly a development of 
river travel through a wilderness country, yet these daring 
navigators never hesitated to press boldly forth upon the 
mighty lakes in the stormy Winter season, coasting the rocky 
shores of Huron, and the wave-lashed beaches of Michigan. 
Desperate tales of wintry voyaging in such frail canoes 
have come down to us, and La Salle and Tonty braved more 
than once terrible peril and suffering along the watery miles 
of storm-lashed sea between Chicago and the mouth of the 
St. Joseph. A marked disadvantage in such craft was 
inability to transport any considerable quantity of provisions 
or merchandise. Early in their journeys the voyageurs 
were compelled to rely on their rifles for food, on audacity 
for safety. Then the delicate structure of their canoes was 
a constant menace; the grazing of a rock, the rasping against 
a stony bottom, involved delay for repairs. Even on the 
peaceful waters of the Illinois, Tonty is constantly telling of 
damages sustained by his canoes. 

Yet contracted, frail, uncomfortable, and unsafe as such 
craft seem, they were sent sternly against the current, or 
dancing down swift streams propelled by the lusty strokes 
of skilled Canadian voyageurs. Rapids were shot like the 
flight of an arrow, storms braved in the open sea, and thou- 
sands of leagues of dark, unknown water explored and given 
to the world. Again and again the same delicate canoe 
would safely thread the intricate water-ways leading from 



OLD WATER-WAYS 109 

Montreal to the far-off Mississippi, steering its devious course 
along Ontario, up the black-fringed Ottawa, coasting the 
rocky shores of Huron, past the little mission station at 
Michillimackinac, down stormy Michigan, until at last its 
venturesome prow would feel the peaceful plashing of the 
Illinois. It involved months of travel, of peril, of intense 
loneliness, with the great savage wilderness stretching away 
unknown, mysterious, on every side, the weary voyageurs 
ever gazing forth on black tangled forests, wide, lorn prairies, 
or the dreary desolation of uncharted seas. 

It was thus that the priest Marquette, his face already 
stamped with coming death, accompanied by the rugged Joliet 
and their engages., drifted downward from Green Bay, along 
the Fox, the Wisconsin, and the Mississippi, every mile open- 
ing before them the unknown, every curve of the stream 
hiding, perchance, somie unsuspected peril which would leave 
them to perish miserably in that gloomy wilderness. It was 
thus La Salle felt his uncertain way down the reed-strewn 
Kankakee, along a stream so narrow the slight boat could 
hardly be forced onward, and it was in just such a canoe he 
made again and again those heart-breaking trips to repair 
his fortunes in Canada. Tonty, Boisrondet, Hennepin, all 
those whose gallant names yet linger in this fascinating story 
of the Illinois country, trusted their all to such frail boats, and 
pushed their narrow prows up many an unnamed stream, 
seeking thus new pathways into the unknown desolation 
surrounding them. Such daring cost lives in plenty, and 
many a reckless voyageur sank beneath rapid and wave; 
but the dangers halted none who crept forth alive. What 
could be more pathetic than the story of Louis Joliet's long 
and dangerous voyage eastward with his report of discoveries 
of the far Mississippi ^. He had been wonderfully successful 
along all his journey, only to meet with serious accident 
almost in sight of home. At the foot of the rapids of La 
Chine, just above Montreal, his canoe caught in an eddy, 



no HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

was capsized and two of his men and an Indian boy drowned, 
while all of his papers were lost and his own life preserved 
as by a miracle. He writes to Frontenac: "I had escaped 
every peril from the Indians; I had passed forty-two rapids; 
and was on the point of disembarking, full of joy at the 
success of so long and difficult an enterprise, — when my 
canoe upset, after all the danger seemed over. I lost two 
men, and my box of papers, within sight of the first French 
settlements, which I had left almost two years before." 

Later, in this same period of exploration, heavier boats 
were adopted for use on such broad streams as the Illinois 
and Mississippi. The large vessel projected by La Salle, 
the building of which was begun at Fort Crevecoeur, was 
never completed, owing to the mutiny in Tonty's command. 
But boats more capacious and stronger, some of hollowed 
logs, others of heavy skins extended over strong framework, 
and possibly a few of flat-boat form built from rude planking, 
were constructed soon after a permanent fortification had 
been erected at Starved Rock. The increasing trade in furs 
made such boats a necessity. The canoe, however, remained 
all through the French regime the favorite for long rapid 
journeys over all kinds of water-ways. Tonty, on his mar- 
vellous trip to the Gulf of Mexico in the vain hope of finding 
La Salle, used a wooden boat, but his entire journey was 
made upon broad water. In narrow, shallow streams, like 
the Kankakee or the Rock or the Fox, paddles were far 
more serviceable than oars, and when portages were long and 
numerous the lighter the boat the better. Later, dur- 
ing the French occupancy, troops were frequently trans- 
ported along the Mississippi and Illinois, between Fort 
Chartres and Detroit, on huge blunt-nosed flat-boats, operated 
by sweeps, specially constructed for the purpose. On the 
larger rivers these had to be warped up against the strong 
current by means of ropes, a most toilsome process. Such 
troop-boats were also despatched eastward, especially during 



OLD WATER-WAYS in 

the French and Indian War, from Fort Chartres by way of 
the Ohio, Wabash, and Maumee. Captain Aubray made 
this journey in March, 1758, with seventeen large boats 
laden with soldiers and provisions. With the coming 
into the country of American pioneers, the old-time canoes 
rapidly disappeared from off the water-ways, and a broader 
type of wooden boat was substituted. Many settlers arrived 
in huge log arks, sitting high above the water, laden with 
household goods, and propelled and guided by long sweeps. 
These, oftentimes made bullet-proof as a defence against 
savages along the shores, were easily floated down the Ohio, 
but the sturdy oarsmen had many a difficult struggle forcing 
their unwieldy vessels northward against the sweeping 
current of the Mississippi. Nevertheless, toil conquered 
difficulties, and not a few of these arks penetrated the water- 
ways as far northward as Peoria. Rafts were also occasion- 
ally used for journeying down stream, and for many years 
the unwieldy keel-boat was very much in evidence. Many 
still live who have voyaged on such with produce to New 
Orleans. 

In imagination let us stand at a curve in the Illinois where 
the eye can follow in wide sweep the gleaming waters of that 
noble stream, surging downward to its meeting with the 
Mississippi. Just above, leaning far out across the water, 
stands a huge tree, the gnarled trunk and distorted limbs 
evidencing age, a tree which, local tradition claims, was old 
when red men ruled this fair domain. Resting thus, dream- 
ing idly of those far-away days of history-making and strug- 
gle, let there sweep before us a panorama of dissolving views, 
the sights this old sentinel tree has witnessed in the long 
centuries of silence. The representatives of races dead and 
forgotten, with strange faces, peculiar dress, and odd-shaped 
water-craft, come out from the early morning mist and 
drift slowly by. Their language is guttural, unknown; their 
ancient weapons, heavily tipped with copper, shimmer in the 



1 1 2 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

sunlight. Scarcely have these rounded the bend below, 
disappearing for ever from this land which was once their 
own, when the Indian comes, a stalwart bronze figure, taci- 
turn and silent, his facial outline strong with lines of cruelty 
and savage instincts. His is a bark canoe, cleaving the waters 
like a wild duck; beside him rests his spear, flint-tipped; 
at his back hangs the bow, with quiver of arrows, while his 
hands grasp the dripping paddle. Like a flash he also is 
gone, but others of his great race follow swiftly after; solitary 
hunters, families migrating to distant villages, traders eager 
for barter among neighboring tribes; war-parties, bedecked 
and painted, whooping madly as they urge their frail boats 
forward in a wild race for the goal. But these are not all the 
same; their dress, their hair, their feathers and war-paint, 
their very cries, tell of a constant change in tribes, even in 
races — Illinois, Miamis, Sacs and Foxes, Winnebagoes, 
Pottawattomies, Kickapoos, Iroquois, and many others, 
take turns in gliding past in grim and savage procession. 
But wait ; here is something new creeping up against the 
stream from around that distant point below. There are 
two boats, canoes unlike those others, battered and stained 
by months of severe service, and they hug the shore closely 
to keep away from the sweep of the current. The paddles 
rise and fall as though the arms wielding them were wearied 
with long toil. Yet the occupants are difi^erent from all those 
others who have been passing this way for unknown cen- 
turies; they are not savages — they are of the white race. 
As they pass silently, take one glimpse and remember the 
picture — three men to each boat, two at the paddles, 
the third resting. Mark him with the broad shoulders and 
dark beard — it is Louis Joliet; and that other, that striking 
face, clean-shaven, pale, the deep-set eyes aglow with interest, 
the thin form hidden beneath a shapeless black robe — it is 
the Jesuit Marquette. Like shadows, yet clearly foretelling 
a coming new life to this land of wilderness, they disappear 



> 



O 

n 



o 


> 


£^ 


H 


c 


w 


1) 


50 






O 


^ 

> 


?5 

o 


-< 




OLD WATER-WAYS 113 

into the dim north, and once again floats past the old Indian 
procession. The obscuring curtain of savagery descends 
upon river and bluff. 

Suddenly hundreds of canoes hurry southward, the 
paddlers working feverishly with many an affrighted glance 
cast backward over their shoulders. They are Illinois, and 
in their boats are huddled women and children crazed with 
fear. A laden canoe grounds on a mud-bank out yonder, 
but the others make no pause for rescue. With plashing 
paddles, and shrill cries of terror, they round the bend below. 
Scarcely has the last laggard disappeared, when down 
sweep others — canoes crowded with painted warriors, 
whooping like fiends, the wild wolves of the Iroquois. As 
the merciless hawk drops down upon his prey, they come, 
crushing the disabled boat, and with savage, cruel blows 
killing every occupant, yet scarcely pausing in their mad 
pursuit of the fugitives beyond. The days pass, the river 
rolls onward, silent and desolate. But watch; a solitary 
canoe swings suddenly into sight, tightly hugging the dark 
shore shadows. It holds three men, and the anxious faces 
peering forth from beneath the broad hat-brims are white. 
Mark that man m the prow, him with the strong, manly face, 
the stalwart figure, the clothing half soldier, half coureur de 
hois — it is Robert de la Salle. And others come, glance 
curiously up at this old tree crowning the bluff, and pass on 
into the silent mystery of the years, and the wilderness. 
Life and death, hope and despair, the red race and the 
white, the Indian, the French, the English, the American, 
each in turn, or intermingled, as the wheel of history revolves, 
go floating by. The one-armed Tonty, swarthy of face but 
white of heart, ever the dauntless soldier; Boisrondet, hardly 
more than a boy; Hennepin, in his gray robe; Durantaye, 
the first commandant at Chicago, and later still, many a 
dashing French gallant, and blunt English soldier. More 
and more the old water-way throbs with life, an ever changing 



114 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

and renewing life, civilization forcing barbarism backward 
with recurring waves. Priest and soldier, fur trader and 
settler, press back and forth, each in turn fulfilling that 
mission with which he is entrusted; the frail canoe changes 
to the rude boat, the flat scow, the top-heavy ark, the lunging 
raft, the laden keel-boat, the modern steamer. War and 
peace rule in turn these sparkling waters, and through it all 
the old tree gazes down in silence, while the historic river of 
the Illinois sweeps ceaselessly forward to pour its waters into 
that greater stream, ever hurrying onward to the Gulf. 
Who can stand upon its banks unmoved by memory of what 
it has been — of that dim past when early civilization bat- 
tled with savagery; of faces and names for ever associated 
with these silvery waters through historic years ? Teeming 
with romance, every wave a messenger of some forgotten 
sacrifice in the brave days of old, rolls on still in peerless 
majesty that ancient highway of the prairies, the historic 
Illinois. 



CHAPTER VIII 

OLD PRAIRIE TRAILS AND THEIR TRAVELLERS 

IN those years before white men came to Illinois, as well 
as during the entire period of sparse French occupancy, 
the virgin prairies of the country, roamed over by wild beasts 
and as wild men, were crisscrossed by innumerable Indian 
trails, leading either from village to village, or else to some 
more distant point of interest. Some of these were distinctly 
war trails, pointing the way direct toward distant hostile 
tribes or to some doomed white settlement along the far-off 
eastern border; others were the outgrowth of the chase, or 
the bartering of furs amid distant lodges; while the more 
important, traversed oftentimes by entire villages in their 
migrations, were the established routes of the aborigines, 
and remained much the same during many generations of 
constant wilderness travel. 

The Indian mode of journeying when on foot was always 
in single file, their war parties oftentimes stretching for a 
great distance in straggling procession. As a result of this 
peculiarity, their trails leading across the country, if much 
used, soon cut deeply into the soft, alluvial soil of the prairie, 
leaving a plainly marked and narrow track, worn by the 
hundreds of moccasined feet passing that way. As some 
trails were thus used for possibly centuries of wilderness 
travel, and by many different tribes, not infrequently this 
gash became so deeply cut as to make travelling difficult, 
and consequently others were started close at hand, thus 
forming parallel tracks running for miles side by side. Like 
great uncoiled snakes these trails wound here and there 
across the level plains, and over the low hills, now skirting 

115 



1 1 6 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

the edge of a dark forest, or plunging into its depths, here 
dipping into some silent ravine, or running beside the margin 
of lake or stream, yet ever pointing directly, and by the most 
feasible route, toward the selected destination, however 
far away. 

The natural instinct of the savages as path finders was 
beyond all question, and those main trails which in an early 
day intersected the Illinois country, so far as they can be 
traced by modern research, exhibit few mistakes in judg- 
ment. The large rivers were avoided so far as possible, 
but, when they must be met, were crossed at convenient and 
shallow fords; the high and rocky hills stretching along the 
southern portion of the State were penetrated by means of 
their natural passes, while, wherever the trail led, the best 
of camping-grounds were always found convenient to the 
end of a day's travel. Several different points within the lim- 
its of the present State appear to have been favorite Indian 
meeting-places, and were seemingly used as such by more 
than one tribe, judging from the number and widely diverg- 
ing trails leading thereto. The most clearly marked spot in 
this respect is Danville. From here, as a centre, narrow 
Indian paths branched off like the spokes of a wheel to every 
point of the compass. The Peoria Lake, or rather the detroit 
between the lakes, was likewise a favored meeting-place for 
various tribes, possibly for fishing as well as purposes of bar- 
ter, while Rock Island and the mouth of the Chicago River 
were alike largely frequented. From Shawneetown in the 
far south, numerous well-worn trails led both north and west. 
During the days of Fort St. Louis, Starved Rock became a 
centre for widely diverging trails, traversed by many tribes. 

Nor, with all these years which have passed since wan- 
dering, moccasined feet thus wore away the soft prairie sod, 
have evidences of these early aboriginal trails totally van- 
ished. The lines were cut, not only across the dreary wilder- 
ness, but equally deep have they been impressed upon history. 



PRAIRIE TRAILS AND THEIR TRAVELLERS 117 

In the very earliest of those old days of struggle and advance 
they became the prized inheritance of the pioneers. When 
venturesome settlers first began to stray cautiously forth 
from beside those streams, along whose inviting banks they 
had first made homes, the Indian trails became their natural 
guides into the unknown interior. They pointed the easier 
path through the Ozarks, and to spots of fertility and beauty 
far beyond. Following them, daring adventurers were led far 
out beyond the uttermost frontier, and thus is accounted 
for many an isolated settlement, seemingly a mere pin-prick 
amid the surrounding wilderness. Many of these trails were 
utilized for years by the earlier settlers as convenient means 
of communication; not a few afterwards became mail routes, 
and later still, stage routes, and finally, by the law of long 
usage, were transformed into permanent roads, which, 
ignoring all the rigidity of section lines and the authority 
of government surveys, swept independently straight across 
the country as the crow flies, as unerring in direction as when 
first traced thereon by some long dead and forgotten savage. 
So to-day, in many portions of this State, one can journey for 
miles along some old-time Indian trail, which would be alive 
with thrilling memories of that dead past could it only be 
induced to tell its long-forgotten story. Even railroads 
speed through the Ozarks, and across the open prairie, under 
such savage guidance, and passengers are whirled past 
scenes of barbaric and historic interest, could the rocks 
only speak, or the old forest trees give voice. 

And what strange scenes of war and peace, what oddly 
attired passing travellers, what peculiar mingling of past and 
present, some of these old-time trails have witnessed in the 
speechless years gone by! It would be indeed a motley 
gathering could the ghosts of the trail again walk, and revisit 
those populous prairies. The story of them to-day, even in 
those little glimpses which have descended through the ob- 
scuring years, is most fascinating; yet the colors are sadly 



ii8 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

faded, the trooping men and women but so many spectres, 
unnamed and unknown. The old Sauk trail; the path lead- 
ing from the far-away French villages on the Mississippi to 
Detroit; from St. Louis to Vincennes; and that dim trace 
extending from the mouth of the Des Moines to the Peoria 
Lake — all alike are historic and mysterious. About them 
cluster picturesque memories, legends innumerable, trage- 
dies unspeakable; hardly a mile but has its story of daring en- 
deavor and wild border life. Let us picture, if we can, some 
of the many who in those other years have passed this way — 
the lonely Indian hunter, with his primitive weapons, fearful 
lest any step might plunge him into danger; the entire vil- 
lage on the move to new territory, the grave warriors stalking 
on ahead, the laden squaws trailing behind, the hardy ponies 
dragging the tepees, their long poles scratching up the soft 
turf; the painted and bedecked war party, armed and silent, 
skulking through the shadows; the black-robed Jesuit, count- 
ing his beads as he treads the weary miles, his one thought 
the salvation of souls; the wandering coureur de bois, careless 
of comfort, and ever at home in the wilderness, singing as he 
toils; the marching troops under the yellow flag of Spain, 
the French fleur de lis,, the cross of St. George, and the Ameri- 
can Stars and Stripes; the inflowing settlers, the gay, merry- 
making French, the grave-faced Americans, and amid them 
all the sombre-clad nuns of the Ursulines. All this these 
trails have seen. Here struggled and toiled the early immi- 
grants, seeking spot for a new home in the wilderness; here 
the dauntless Kentucky hunters passed, their anxious eyes 
marking each dark covert in search for some skulking enemy; 
here the infuriated Rangers swept along in hasty pursuit of 
their savage foe. 

History holds in her iron hand no more picturesque story 
than these trails could reveal were their guarded secrets 
known. Here met the nations of the Old World and the 
New — Indian and white, Spaniard, Frenchman, Briton, and 



PRAIRIE TRAILS AND THEIR TRAVELLERS 119 

American; priest and nun, soldier and adventurer, settler 
and outlaw, fair patrician women, and outpourings from 
the Salpetriere and other hospitals of Paris. They have 
echoed to bursts of merry laughter, and to cries of agony 
and implorations of despair. Great soldiers, famous border- 
men, mighty warriors and chiefs, have helped to wear away 
this sod. Pontiac and Black Hawk, Keokuk and Tecumseh, 
Gomo and Little Bird, have all been here. Marquette and 
Joliet, La Salle and Tonty, Du Lhut, Clark, Renault, Bois- 
briant, Dubuque, Crogan, Taylor, Harrison, have all in turn 
borne part in their forgotten history — have seen and suffered, 
toiled and conquered, along these trails of the long ago. Here 
captives — agonized women and children — have been hur- 
ried to distant villages, and a fate of slavery; along here men 
have been driven under the merciless whip to the fiendish 
torture of the stake. What suffering and hardship, what 
yearning and heartsickness, what speechless agony and 
brave hopes these silent miles have witnessed! And amid it 
all, bold and undaunted hearts were thus steadily shaping 
the destinies of a nation, laying the foundations of a mighty 
State, while through the wilderness, and along these blotted 
traces, they bore their messages of hope and despair, of 
peaceful greeting or warlike defiance. 

Among these earlier trails marking the Illinois country, 
both Indian and white, although as a rule the latter utilized 
the experience of the former, it is only necessary to trace a 
few of the more important historically. That we are en- 
abled to do this with some degree of accuracy is owing to the 
careful map-making of Rufus Blanchard. 

While not the oldest by many years, the Sauk trail is in 
some respects one of the most interesting and clearly marked. 
It formed the pathway along which each recurring year the 
Sacs and Foxes travelled from their great village on the 
banks of the Mississippi to Maiden in Canada, for the pur- 
pose of receiving their annuities from the English government. 



I20 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

It was what might be denominated as a broad trail, the 
large number of men, women, and children passing along it, 
with ponies dragging their tepees and household equipments, 
leaving a wide mark across the prairies. This trail followed 
as nearly a straight line eastward as the nature of the country 
would permit, and as a great portion of the territory traversed 
was level, or nearly so, there are reaches where modern sec- 
tion line roads actually follow this old trace for miles. Then 
the original pathfinder would meet with some early, but now 
surmountable, obstacle, and swerve aside to avoid it. This 
broad trail commenced its long, snake-like course at the 
present town of Milan, near the mouth of Rock River, crossed 
the more northern portion of Henry County, probably touch- 
ing the present city of Geneseo, and then followed the pleas- 
ant valley of Green River until well into Bureau County, 
where it entered upon the higher, rolling prairie. The line 
swerved here more northeasterly, entering the present limits 
of La Salle County some two miles south of Mendota, and, 
crossing the Fox River close to the town of Sheridan, swept 
over the southern portion of Kendall County, — where the 
old Maramech trails converged, — finding opportunity to 
ford the Des Plaines slightly below Joliet, and finally trav- 
ersed Cook County, about two miles north of its present 
southern limit, until it entered Indiana. It must have 
formed a sight well worth the seeing, this annual migration of 
Indians across the unbroken prairies. These were both 
large tribes, their confederation peculiarly strong, and no 
doubt they straggled out for many miles along the way as 
they marched, even while keeping close enough to each 
other to ward off hostile attack. As they thus passed through 
country hunted over by both the Pottawattomies and the 
Kickapoos, it is hardly likely they always escaped without 
paying toll of blood. As late as 1883, it is said by com- 
petent observers, the marks of this passage were still visible 
in many places, where the prairie sod had remained undis- 
turbed by the plough. 



PRAIRIE TRAILS AND THEIR TRAVELLERS 121 

The old villages of the Peorias, which when the white 
men first came were established at the mouth of the Des 
Moines River in Iowa, were from a very early age directly 
connected by trail with the populous villages of the Kaskas- 
kias — both being of the Illinois stock — situated upon the 
great bend of the Illinois River, near the present location of 
Utica. This trail was quite largely travelled by Indian trad- 
ing parties, and probably at some time formed a portion of a 
direct line of savage communication, extending between the 
Mississippi and the Chicago portage. It was considerably 
used during the French occupancy of the country by the 
Jesuits, and by French traders settled near the Peoria Lake. 
As early as 1720 there was a French trading-post on Illinois 
soil opposite the mouth of the Des Moines. For several years 
this path was believed to be that followed by Marquette and 
Joliet on their return eastward, but later investigations 
have apparently decided that their return was made directly 
up the Illinois by canoe from its mouth. This old trail held 
its course across the present counties of Hancock, Warren, 
Knox, Stark, and Bureau, but so far as known has left no 
existing trace. 

The overland trail between Kaskaskia and Detroit, laid 
out and used by the French for both trading and military 
purposes, was very early established. The date when it was 
first passed over by whites has not been recorded, but it was 
probably as early as 1705 or 1706. It was undoubtedly 
formed largely by the uniting together of shorter original 
Indian trails, although the necessity of transportation would 
cause white travellers to avoid obstacles to which an Indian 
would remain entirely indifferent. This trail was in almost 
constant use for years, wagons even being driven on it, 
and considerable detachments of troops marching its entire 
distance. To this day it remains, along part of its course, 
a legal highway in continual use. As originally laid out it 
ran almost directly northeast across the State from Kaskaskia 



122 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

to Danville, bisecting the Counties of Randolph, Washington, 
Marion, Effingham, Cumberland, Coles, Edgar, and Vermil- 
ion. The present cities of Elkhorn, Salem, and Charleston 
lie upon the old route. Rivers of any considerable size 
seem to have been successfully avoided, although smaller 
streams were crossed in plenty. Salt Creek and the upper 
waters of the Embarras being of most importance. For 
the greater distance in Illinois the line of passage led across 
high, level prairie land, dotted over with groves, the banks 
of the streams being generally heavily wooded. It must 
in that day have been a beautiful country in all its virgin 
freshness, and as the early French residents were usually 
on friendly terms with the Indian tribes along the way — 
the Piankishaws and Miamis, — there no doubt passed 
over its winding course many a merry party to whom the 
long trip proved a continual pleasure. Much of romantic 
interest clusters about the memory of this old-time track 
across the wilderness. In those far-ofF days of French 
ascendency, when Fort de Chartres was the centre of French 
power in the great valley, and the commandant of the Illinois 
country ruled as a little king, this old trail witnessed many 
a gay and glittering cavalcade. Here passed fair maids 
and merry matrons of France, not a few in the ruffled 
petticoat and high-heeled shoes of fashion; beside them 
gallant soldiers rode with bow and smile, their lace- 
trimmed uniforms gorgeous in the sunshine. Courtiers of 
the French court, friends of the great Louis, travelled these 
sombre miles of wilderness, passing the time with quip and 
fancy, while many an adventurer, his sole wealth the glit- 
tering sword at his side, pressed forward hopefully to 
his fate in the West. Troops, travel-stained and weary, 
marched it on their way to battle against the English out- 
posts; wild raiding parties swept over it through the 
dense night shadows, and many a despatch-bearer, lying 
low upon his horse's neck, speeded day and night with his 



PRAIRIE TRAILS AND THEIR TRAVELLERS 123 

precious message. Would that the dead Hps might open 
to tell again the thousand forgotten stories haunting every 
camping spot, every shaded nook, through which the old 
trail ran. 

But the hour came when the French power grew weak, 
and all this fair country fell into English hands, and they 
in turn were compelled to deliver up their brief authority 
to American bordermen. The trail of George Rogers 
Clark, made in 1778 from near the site of Fort Massac on 
the banks of the Ohio River to Kaskaskia, marks an epoch 
in American history of transcendent importance. Nothing 
ever occurring in the West has resulted in greater permanent 
benefit to the people of the United States. In later years 
this faint track became a largely used trail for the early 
white settlers, pouring in by way of the Ohio. It was long 
a regular line of communication between Golconda and 
the settlements in the American Bottom, travelled by many 
a hardy immigrant into this new land. A puzzled guide 
caused Clark to wander somewhat ; and to improve the 
trail by straightening it for a small portion of the way, was 
a task ably performed in 1821 by Mr. Worthen. A well- 
marked trail, laid out by the French and distinguished by 
red signs painted on trees, ran, via the mouth of the Ohio, 
between Massac and Chartres. Clark's failure to use this 
was doubtless through fear of discovery on the way. 

Clark, with his little band of Kentucky riflemen, left 
the Ohio River, close to Fort Massac, at the mouth of a 
small creek just above where the city of Metropolis now 
stands, and plunged out into what was to him an unknown 
wilderness. He aimed at first somewhat northeasterly, 
seeking possibly thus to avoid serious entanglement in the 
Ozark Hills, until his column had reached to nearly the 
centre of what is now Pope County, when he swerved more 
westerly, his course becoming, because of poor guidance, 
decidedly irregular as they traversed what is now Williamson 



124 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

County. Their path led across the present site of Marion, 
whence the direction was straight north until the Perry 
County Hne had been crossed. Clark was by this time 
directly east of Kaskaskia, and his march to that place be- 
came as straight as natural obstacles would permit. 

The following year he possessed the decided advantage 
of having competent French guides for his march toward 
Vincennes. These led him along a path which, for at least 
a large portion of the way, had been frequently travelled 
before, it being a connecting trail used by traders since 
about the year 1710, when Post Vincennes was first estab- 
lished. The mail route between these places, which was 
opened in 1805, chose a more northern course, thus avoiding 
the necessity of crossing those streams which gave so much 
trouble to Clark. This trail, thus utilized by that gallant 
band of frontiersmen in their desperate midwinter march 
through the wilderness, and along which they toiled and 
suffered for so great a purpose in the making of the history 
of Illinois, ought to be traced with care and marked by suit-- 
able monuments along its entire course. To-day its direc- 
tion can only be approximately given, as the best modem 
authorities differ somewhat widely regarding details. This 
much, however, we know beyond probable dispute — it 
led, in somewhat irregular course, because of natural difH- 
culties, through Randolph County, probably crossing into 
the northwestern corner of Perry a little west of the present 
village of Craig, touching Washington County in its south- 
eastern corner, and fording Beaucoup Creek a few miles 
east of Radom. Jefferson County was crossed very nearly 
at its centre, the column passing perhaps a mile south of 
the present city of Mount Vernon, later entering Wayne 
County close to Keene's Station, just east of which they 
forded Skillet Fork. Here the course became more north- 
erly, the trail passing some five or six miles north of Fairfield, 
and striking the overflowing waters of the Little Wabash 



PRAIRIE TRAILS AND THEIR TRAVELLERS 125 

not far from the immediate vicinity of Maple Grove, in the 
extreme northwest corner of Edwards County. Richland 
was crossed near the present site of Parkersburg, the Bon 
Pas River forded near where the town of the same name 
now stands, and Lawrence County was entered somewhat 
east of Henryville. The swollen waters of the Embarras 
were probably first encountered some four or five miles 
south of Lawrenceville, from which point these undaunted 
bordermen waded and swam until they attained the junction 
of the Wabash. 

Crossing over this same territory to-day, driving easily 
across the high rolling prairies, the seemingly level plains, 
and through pleasant groves, descending into wide, well- 
drained valleys, and crossing the slowly flowing streams 
by means of substantial bridges, the traveller can hardly 
imagine the innumerable difficulties, the unspeakable hard- 
ships, surrounding every mile of that early march. There 
can come to him scarcely a fair conception of what a 
freshet meant to this country in that day of the long ago, 
or of the immense downrush of water which rendered this 
wilderness advance one of the greatest military achieve- 
ments of the century in which it took place. Only men 
of iron, long trained to combat all the hardships of the 
frontier, animated by the highest conception of duty, and 
commanded and inspired by an indomitable leader, could 
ever have accomplished it and gone forward to grim battle 
at its end. Illinois can well afi^ord to mark with enduring 
memorials that course along which they so sternly struggled 
to final victory and the winning of an empire to the United 
States. 

Other trails leading in various directions through this 
Illinois country are of less historic and romantic interest, 
and their story may be outlined in few words. One of the 
most interesting is that lonely track left across the northern 
counties by James Watson Webb, in 1822. At that time, 



126 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

being an officer stationed at Fort Dearborn at the mouth 
of the Chicago River (rebuilt in 1816), he volunteered to 
bear tidings of a threatened Indian uprising to the unsus- 
pecting garrison stationed at Fort Armstrong, which stood 
at the lower extremity of Rock Island looking down the 
majestic Mississippi. It was in the midst of a severe Winter, 
and he travelled alone, without a guide, through unknown 
territory roamed over by hostile savages. His first point 
of destination was La Sallier's trading-post, situated on the 
south bank of Rock River, about on the line now exist- 
ing between Lee and Ogle Counties, a few miles north of 
Dixon. This had just been established, and was the sole 
point of civilization in all that country. From here Webb's 
course was laid almost directly to the Mississippi. Reaching 
that river in the vicinity of Fulton, he proceeded down the 
eastern bank until he arrived in safety at Rock Island, and 
delivered his warning. It was a most perilous journey, 
not only on account of the hostiles haunting every mile of 
it, but also the natural dangers of the way, greatly accented 
by the severe season during which it was accomplished. 
The territory covered by this solitary traveller included 
Cook, Du Page, Kane, De Kalb, Lee, Whiteside, and Rock 
Island Counties. On his return trip Webb chose a more 
southern route as being safer, crossing Henry and Bureau 
Counties, until he reached the Illinois River, when the 
water-ways were followed back to the mouth of the Chicago. 
The route of Governor Edwards into the Indian country 
during the War of 1812 started at Camp Russell, just above 
the present site of Edwardsville, in Madison County, and 
passed directly north through Carlinville, Macoupin County, 
sweeping somewhat east of where Springfield now stands, 
and then led about three miles west of the present city of 
Lincoln. Just across the southern line of Tazewell County, 
near the present town of Centre, they discovered their first 
Kickapoo village, and destroyed it. From this point their 



PRAIRIE TRAILS AND THEIR TRAVELLERS 127 

march was almost directly north, until they came to the 
second village along the eastern bluffs of the Illinois, which 
after a skirmish was also destroyed. This must have 
occurred not far from the post-office of Spring Bay. Hop- 
kins's rather disgraceful raid with his mounted Kentucky 
riflemen, from Fort Harrison on the Wabash, expect- 
ing to cooperate with Edwards's column, succeeded in 
crossing Edgar, Vermilion, Champaign, and Ford Coun- 
ties. Livingston was penetrated possibly as far as the town 
of Strawn, where the sight of distant raging prairie fires 
caused the soldiers to mutiny and retreat. 

General Howard's more important advance into the 
Indian country the following year started from the same 
point as did Governor Edwards's, but pursued an entirely 
different route. His command followed the course of the 
Mississippi until opposite Fort Madison, Iowa, when it 
struck directly southeast across Hancock, Macoupin, and 
Fulton Counties to the Illinois River, opposite the site of 
Havana. From here, cutting across the sharper bends in 
the stream, the general course of the river was followed until 
Gomo's village, where Chillicothe now stands, was reached 
and destroyed. 

The Fort Clark and Wabash trail was a well-travelled 
road after about the year 18 15, and was probably used long 
before that date. It led from the site of Terre Haute, Indi- 
ana, to the north shore of Peoria Lake, and was extensively 
used by immigrants, as well as traders. Kellogg's trail was 
the first overland route between Peoria and Galena. It 
was laid out by an early settler of that name in 1825, ^^^ ^^^ 
heavily travelled for many years. It crossed Marshall, 
Bureau, Lee, Ogle, Stevenson, and Jo Daviess Counties. 
The first mail route in the State was established in 1805, 
extending from St. Louis to Vincennes, with a branch to 
Kaskaskia. It crossed the present sites of Belleville, Car- 
lyle, Salem, Maybury, and Lawrenceville, and much of the 



128 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

road is still preserved. The second ran from where Mount 
Carmel now stands south to Shawneetown, and was placed 
in operation in 1807. Chicago possessed a mail route run- 
ning south to Danville in 1832, and one west to Dixon in 
1834. Ottawa and St. Charles were thus connected as early 
as 1830, and Galena was reached via the Dixon route in 
1834. Criss-crossing the State were many other trails of less 
importance, yet all alike holding much of interest to those 
who desire information about early frontier life. The old 
roads growing out of these dim tracks across the wilderness 
were the arteries through which flowed the life blood of 
Illinois. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 

THE establishment by La Salle of Fort St. Louis on the 
summit of Starved Rock attracted to that immediate 
neighborhood a number of adventurous Frenchmen, voy- 
ageurs, coureurs de bois, soldiers, fur traders, and priests. 
Some of these were accompanied by women of their own race, 
or were afterwards joined by such, while others established 
at least temporary homes by contracting alliances with 
Indian squaws. This post remained in existence from 1682 
until at least 1702, when Tonty seems to have finally aban- 
doned it, and gone south. During those twenty years this 
changeable population of natural wanderers established 
small trading-posts at various points convenient to tributary 
streams, resulting in a considerable development of the fur 
trade, while the indefatigable priests erected many a rude 
chapel of logs throughout the near-by wilderness wherein 
they sought to gather closely their dusky flocks. Yet 
all this bore little semblance to permanent settlement, nor 
did it endure any length of time beyond the abandonment 
of the protecting fort. 

The oldest permanent settlement by Europeans, not 
only in Illinois, but in the entire Mississippi valley, must be 
credited to Kaskaskia, or, more properly perhaps, Notre 
Dame de Cascasquias, which was located on the west bank 
some six miles above the mouth of the river bearing that 
name, and within the limits of the present county of Ran- 
dolph. As was commonly the case along the French frontier 
it was first an Indian village, then a missionary station, but 

slowly gathered to it a vagrant white population. The origi- 

129 



130 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

nal mission from which this later settlement sprung, had 
been estabHshed with the early visit of Pere Marquette to 
the great village of the Illinois (likewise called Kaskaskia), on 
the river of that name, but was removed when the discom- 
fited tribes fled southward for safety from their enemies. 
Fathers Gravier and Marest, the latter the priest then in 
charge at the Illinois town, directed the change which was 
effected some time prior to 1700, although the exact date is 
unknown. Marest remained with them in their new home, 
but was afterwards succeeded by Fathers Binneteau and 
Pinet. These were all Jesuits. The latter established the 
mission and village of Cahokia, sixty miles farther north, 
and was peculiarly successful in his Indian labors, the 
rude chapel built soon proving too small to contain those 
seeking his ministrations. The tribes directly under his 
charge were the Tamaroas and Cahokias. Father Binne- 
teau remained at the original post, and proved himself a 
zealous missionary. The duties of his office compelling 
him to accompany his flock of Kaskaskias on one of their 
long hunting trips to the upland plains of the Mississippi, he 
met his death. Now stifled in the tall grass, now panting 
with thirst on the arid prairie, parched by day with heat, 
and at night lying on the ground exposed to chilling dews, 
he was seized with a mortal fever, and passed away in 
true martyrdom. Only a little later his companion priest. 
Father Pinet, also died. 

But however dangerous the work or desperate the hard- 
ships, there was never lack of volunteers among these sol- 
diers of the Cross. Father Marest, who had previous 
to his Illinois labors been telling the Christ story to the 
ice-bound denizens of the Hudson Bay country, came down 
the streams from the northward and took up again the 
heavy burdens of this Illinois mission. A glimpse of what 
his duties involved appears in his correspondence, where 
he writes : 



THE FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 131 

'' Our life is spent in roaming through thick woods, in clamber- 
ing over hills, in paddling canoes across lakes and rivers, to catch a 
poor savage v^^hom we can neither tame by teachings nor caresses." 

On Good Friday, 171 1, he started for the village of the 
Peorias, and in his description of his journey writes: 

"I departed, having nothing about me but my crucifix and 
breviary, being accompanied by only two savages, who might 
abandon me from levity, or might fly through fear of enemies. The 
terror of these vast, uninhabitable regions, in which for twelve days 
not a single soul was seen, almost took away my courage. This 
was a journey wherein there was no village, no bridge, no ferry- 
boat, no house, no beaten path ; and over boundless prairies, inter- 
sected by rivulets and rivers, through forests and thickets filled with 
briars and thorns, through marshes in which we sometimes plunged 
to the girdle." 

Early in the eighteenth century he was joined in his labors 
by Father Mermet, who had previously founded a separate 
mission on the Ohio at the site of Fort Massac. Mermet 
was one of the most remarkable men who ever buried their 
talents in the wilderness inspired by religious enthusiasm. 
He became the very soul of the mission at Kaskaskia, and 
the influence of his life and work was felt throughout the 
entire Illinois country. To show the condition of the Jesuit 
mission, as well as a pen-picture of the growing French 
settlements, we can do no better than quote from Father 
Charlevoix, who visited there in 1721. He writes: 

*' We lay last night in the village of the Cahokias and Tama- 
roas, two Illinois tribes which have been united, and compose no 
very numerous canton. This village is situated on a very small 
river which runs from the east, and has no water except in the 
Spring. On this account we had to walk half a league before we 
could get to our cabins. I was astonished that such a poor situation 
had been selected when there were so many good ones. But I was 
told the Mississippi washed the foot of the village when it was 
built ; that in three years it had shifted its course half a league 



132 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

farther to the west, and that they were now thinking of changing 
their habitation, which is no great affair among these Indians. I 
passed the night with the missionaries, who are two ecclesiastics 
from the Seminary of Quebec, formerly my disciples, but they 
must now be my masters. Yesterday I arrived at Kaskaskia about 
nine o'clock. The Jesuits here have a very flourishing mission, 
which has lately been divided into two. The most numerous one 
is on the banks of the Mississippi, of which two Jesuits have the 
spiritual direction. Half a league below stands Fort Chartres, 
about the distance of a musket-shot from the river. The French 
are now beginning to settle the country between the fort and the 
first mission. Four leagues farther, and about a league from the 
river, is a large village, inhabited by the French, who are almost all 
Canadians, and have a Jesuit for their curate. The second village 
of the Illinois lies farther up the country." 

The growth of the French population was slow and un- 
certain, while the wandering character of the men, princi- 
pally voyageurs and fur hunters, tended to constant change 
with little desire for permanent improvement. Captain 
Pitman, who visited the Illinois country as late as 1766, 
during the term of British occupancy, described the condi- 
tion of the towns as they then appeared. Of Kaskaskia, 
which contained about one hundred families of French and 
English, many of the original French inhabitants having 
gone to St. Louis, he writes: 

" It is the most considerable settlement in the country of the 
Illinois, as well from its number of inhabitants as from its advanta- 
geous situation. . . . Mons. Paget was the first who intro- 
duced water mills in this country, and he constructed a very fine 
one on the river Cascasquias, which was both for grinding corn and 
sawing boards. It lies about one mile from the village. The mill 
proved fatal to him, he being killed as he was working it with two 
negroes, by a party of Cherokees, in the year 1764. The principal 
buildings are the Church and Jesuit's house which has a small 
chapel adjoining it ; these, as well as some other houses in the 
village, are built of stone, and, considering this part of the world, 



THE FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 133 

make a very good appearance. The Jesuit's plantation consisted 
of two hundred and forty arpents (an arpent is 85-100 of an acre) 
of cultivated land, a very good stock of cattle, and a brewery^ 
which was sold by the French commandant after the country was 
ceded to the English, in consequence of the suppression of the 
Order. Mons, Beauvais was the purchaser, who is the richest of 
the English subjects in this country ; he keeps eighty slaves ; he 
furnishes 86,000 weight of flour to the King's magazine, which 
was only part of the harvest he reaped in one year." 

The French settlements along the lower Mississippi 
consisted of several small towns within a comparatively 
small radius, of which Kaskaskia was the centre and chief, 
as well as the oldest. In all save locality they were much 
alike, although the settlers of Kaskaskia largely came from 
New Orleans, and those of Cahokia from Canada. Prairie 
du Rocher was fourteen miles from Kaskaskia, and in the 
immediate neighborhood of Fort Chartres. At the time 
of English occupancy it contained twenty-two houses, each 
occupied by a family. Saint Phillipe was about five miles 
from Chartres on the road to Kaoquias. It contained 
sixteen houses and a small church, but all the inhabitants, 
excepting the captain of the militia company, deserted it 
when the English arrived, and crossed the Mississippi into 
Missouri. Kaoquias, or Cahokia, was established fifteen 
leagues from Chartres, and six leagues below the mouth of 
the Missouri River. The village was directly opposite the 
centre of Duncan's Island, and thus differing from the other 
French villages was long and straggling, being three-fourths 
of a mile from one end to the other. In its best days it con- 
tained a church and forty-five dwelling-houses. The situ- 
ation was poor, as in time of flood it was generally covered 
two or three feet deep. The land here occupied had been 
purchased of the Indians by the Canadian inhabitants, many 
of whom married native women. The dwellers at this 
point were largely hunters, or interested in the fur trade, 



134 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

paying small attention to agriculture, and making few 
permanent improvements. The mission of St. Sulpice, 
however, had a fine plantation near by, with an excellent 
house and mill. When the English came they sold out at 
a great sacrifice, and returned to France. 

The growth of these isolated settlements during the 
sixty odd years of French rule was not rapid, nor were many 
of the settlers who drifted into the country permanent res- 
idents. The majority came and went, mere vagabonds of 
the frontier. Yet not a few enterprising Canadians were 
attracted thither by the climate, finding homes along the 
Illinois, Mississippi, and Wabash. Fur-trading stations 
sprang up everywhere along the principal water-courses, 
and much commerce of this kind found its way over the 
long leagues to Montreal. A little later, under the stim- 
ulus of individual enterprise, and the advice of military 
commandants, the course of trade gradually changed, until 
New Orleans became the great mart of the Illinois country. 
Regular cargoes of pork, flour, bacon, tallow, hides, and 
leather were annually transported in barges down the broad 
Mississippi and sold. On the return trip the boats were 
often laden with rice, indigo, sugar, and European fabrics. 
The decade commencing with 1740 and closing with 1750 
was the most prosperous. 

But earlier even than these, were those first French 
settlers who came in with La Salle, and were granted con- 
cessions of land under his patent. These were largely 
engagesy employed either about Fort St. Louis, or in the 
fur trade early springing up in that immediate neighborhood. 
The names of some twenty or more of these earliest colonists 
of Illinois are preserved in the records of the Superior Council 
of Quebec, and are worthy of record. Among them Mason 
gives us the following list: Riverin, Pierre Chevet, Fran9ois 
Pachot, Chanjou, Francois Hageur, Louis Le Vasseur, 
Mathieu Martin, Fran9ois Charron, les Sieurs d'Artigny 



THE FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 135 

and La Chesnaye, Jacque de Faye, Pierre Le Vasseur, Michel 
Guyon, Poisset, Andre de Chaulne, Marie Joseph le Neuf, 
Michel de Grig, Philipes Osnault, Jean Petit, Rene Fegeret, 
les Sieurs Laport, Louvigny, and St. Castin, Francois de la 
Forest, Henri de Tonty, and the Jesuit Fathers. Bold 
voyageurs probably the most of them, and loyal to their 
great leader, every man having back of him a life of strange 
adventure in the wilderness. But their colony lived only v^hile 
St. Louis crowned the rock; and when the garrison marched 
forth for the last time and left only a ruin behind, the scat- 
tered settlers were not long in following. Some may have 
halted at the Peoria Straits and founded De Pe, but no 
doubt the majority drifted down the rivers to old Kaskaskia. 
This latter town, the principal point of colonization as 
well as of political and social power during one hundred and 
twenty years, and under the shadow of three flags, was in 
most respects a typical French village of its age. Nestled 
as closely as possible to the river, along the banks of which 
its little houses clung lovingly, it never lost its picturesque 
character. Many species of architecture fronted the nar- 
row, stone-paved streets, although most of the homes were 
of the primitive French style, low and broad, with dormer 
windows, spacious porches, great masses of roses often blos- 
soming to the roofs. Yet there were brick mansions also, 
the material transported from far down the Ohio, while not 
a few were constructed of stone, quarried from the neigh- 
boring bluff^s. The Court-house, the House of the Jesuits, 
and the spacious home occupied by John Edgar, were per- 
haps the most notable of these, but across the river, nestling 
beneath the bluff shadow, were other residences, such as 
that of Pierre Menard, where many of the more exclusive 
chose to live. The streets, shaded by trees, narrow, not 
over straight or regular, but often bordered by beds of 
flowers, were great meeting-places in the moonlit Summer 
evenings, and many, indeed, were the types to be met saun- 



136 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

tering idly there, the air ringing with gossiping voices and 
cheery laughter, while back on the broad piazzas, little 
family groups looked forth on the gay spectacle, chatting 
volubly over their light wine. 

The peculiar characteristics of these French colonists 
have come down to us in little glimpses from the histories of 
Governors Ford and Reynolds, who saw something of their 
last days, and the pictures have been added to by the re- 
searches of Davidson and Stuve. The work of this chapter 
is but a resume of their combined labor. 

There was much that was peculiar and interesting about 
these early French frontier settlements and their people. 
Unlike the English colonists who usually established them- 
selves in widely scattered independence, it was the French 
nature to abide in compact villages. These were generally 
built on some stream, contiguous to timber and prairie, that 
they might thus have close at hand the three essentials to 
such easy living as they loved — water, fuel, and ground 
for tillage. While brick and stone were occasionally used, 
their dwellings were commonly of the most primitive sort. 
The framework consisted of posts planted in the earth for 
three or four feet, and then strongly bound together by 
cross ties. The interstices were filled with mortar, mixed 
with straw or Spanish moss. The walls within and without 
were covered with white lime, lending an air of cleanliness 
to the entire village. Nearly every such house had its wide 
piazza in front where the family found a pleasant spot to 
while away the sultry evenings. Probably not one of these 
primitive homes has survived. With ample room for broad 
streets, they preferred to leave theirs as narrow as possible, 
and, as a result, the merry villagers could sit on their own 
porches and talk across with their near-by neighbors. Hav- 
ing no machinery they split trees into slabs for flooring, 
doors, and other purposes, while their houses were thatched 
with straw. Everywhere the social instincts of the people 



THE FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 



137 



found outward expression. As a general rule their dwell- 
ings were grouped as closely together as possible. Each 
settlement commonly contained its patriarchal homestead, 
which was occupied by the oldest existing member of the 
family. About this sprung up a cluster of smaller houses, 
the residence of each child or grandchild. Oftentimes the 
aged patriarch became the centre of a dozen growing fam- 
ilies of his own lineage, and embracing three, four, or more 
generations. Much was ever made of the family life, and 
ties of relationship were strong. 

All such villages possessed a common field in which every 
inhabitant was supposed to be equally interested. To each 
was assigned a portion, the extent being proportioned to 
the size and needs of his family. Everything in connection 
with the proper cultivation of this land was decided by the 
village senate. The time for ploughing, sowing, and har- 
vesting, even the form and arrangement of buildings, were 
thus decided upon. Besides this common field for tillage, 
there was also set aside a pasture which was free to all the 
villagers, as was likewise their supply of fuel. Almost with- 
out exception no mechanical means of earning a living was 
known. Agriculture and hunting were the principal occu- 
pations of the permanent residents, although voyageurs 
and coureurs de hois were always to be met with on the village 
streets. Young men of enterprise often drifted out into the 
surrounding wilderness, as employees of the fur trade or 
boatmen on the great river, to return only at long intervals 
with many a romantic tale of the strange sights seen, or 
adventures encountered. The dance was the principal 
diversion of the villagers, and was made a part of every 
festival, while there was scarcely a home but contained its 
fiddle, and capable performer. Care, indeed, was almost 
a stranger to these villages, and seldom tarried among them 
for many days as a guest. Amusements, festivals, and 
holy days were frequent, almost constant. In the light 



138 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

fantastic dance, marked by thoughtless abandon, the young 
and gay were active participants, while the more aged, with 
the " reverend father," looked smilingly on. Nor were these 
enjoyments confined to any sex or condition. In the dance 
all participated from oldest to youngest, the bond and the 
free; even the black slave rejoicing over his master's hap- 
piness. 

" At the close of each year," in the words of Davidson and 
Stuve, " it was a custom among them for the young men to dis- 
guise themselves in old clothes, visit the several houses of the 
village, and engage in friendly dances with the inmates. This was 
understood as being an invitation for all the family to meet in a 
general ball, in which to watch the birth of the New Year. Large 
crowds assembled, carrying their own refreshments, and a merry 
time was ever the result. Another custom was general on January 
6. By lot, four kings were chosen, each of whom selected for 
himself a queen. These together perfected arrangements for an 
entertainment known as a king-ball. Toward the close of the 
first dance the old queens selected new kings, whom they kissed as 
the formality of introduction into office. In a similar manner 
these kings chose new queens, and thus the gay time continued 
during the entire carnival, up to the week preceding Lent." 

These dwellers on the far French frontier were largely 
descendants from emigrants originally coming from Picardy 
and Normandy. Some had drifted down the long water- 
ways from far-off Canada, pausing often perhaps as they 
voyaged, while others had found passage up the great river 
from New Orleans. All were ardent Catholics, looking to 
their priests for guidance in both spiritual and secular affairs. 
No regular court was ever held in this country during French 
control, yet there remains no record of any serious infraction 
of law. The commandant at Fort Chartres, who exercised 
almost kingly powers, aided by the friendly advice of the 
priests, either prevented controversies or quietly settled them. 
Hospitality was held a duty, always cheerfully performed; 



70 
G 



O 

o 

t-' 

o 
> 

> 

CO 

IK 




THE FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 139 

taverns were unknown, for every house supplied the deficiency. 
In politics they simply believed that France ruled the world, 
and were content; worldly honors were unknown and un- 
cared for, while, with little commerce, the luxuries and 
refinements of civilization were held valueless. Thus day 
after day passed by in perfect contentment and peaceful 
indolence. Of rank there was little distinction; excepting 
the priests and military officers, all were upon an equality, 
all dressed alike, all met on the same social plane. 

The frank, social disposition of their natures made the 
preservation of peace with surrounding Indian tribes an 
easy matter. In the wigwams and camps of the savages 
they were at home; they met and mingled with them, not 
as an alien race, but upon terms of intimate friendship. 
Marriages between white and red were common, not a few with 
all the sanctity of church ceremony, and half-breed children 
soon became numerous in the village streets. Their very 
manners, habits, and love of ceremony commended these 
careless French habitants to the good will of their savage 
allies. Magnificent fighters on occasions of necessity, 
and ever prompt volunteers at the demand of the King, 
when the battle ceased they were at once transformed into 
polite courtiers. As Governor Ford says: 

" Separated by an immense wilderness from all civilized society, 
these voluntary exiles yet retained all the suavity and politeness of 
their race. It is a remarkable fact, that the roughest hunter or 
boatman among them could, at any time, appear in a ball-room, or 
at a council-fire, with the carriage and behavior of a well-bred gentle- 
man. At the same time the French women — unless we except the 
ofF-scouring of the Salpetriere and Hospitals of Paris — were re- 
markable for the sprightliness of their conversation, and the grace 
and elegance of their manners." 

We are told that their horses and cattle, for want of 
proper care and food, degenerated in size but seemed to 
acquire an additional vigor and toughness, so that among 



140 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

the incoming Americans a French pony was a proverb for 
strength and endurance. These ponies were trained to 
draw, sometimes one alone, sometimes two together, one 
hitched before the other, the rude ploughs or carts made 
entirely of wood. The latter held about double the contents 
of a common large wheelbarrow. When oxen were used 
they were yoked by the horns instead of the neck, and in 
this mode were made to haul heavy loads. Nothing like 
reins were ever needed for driving; the whip of the driver, 
having a handle two feet and a lash two yards long, stopped 
or guided horse or ox perfectly. Each village had its Cath- 
olic church and priest. The church was the great place 
of resort on Sundays and holidays, and became associated 
with the gayety as well as the spiritual life of the people. 
The priest was advisor, director, and friend to all his 
flock. 

The costume of these Illinois French, like their manners 
and customs, was simple and peculiar. In much it was the 
natural outgrowth of their situation. Too poor and too 
remote to obtain finer fabrics, the men during the Summer 
wore pantaloons made of coarse blue cloth, which in the 
Winter season was supplanted by buckskin. Over their 
shirts and long vests, a flannel cloak was worn, to the collar 
of which was attached a hood, to be drawn over the head on 
the coldest days, but when warmer it fell back on the shoul- 
ders after the manner of a cape. It was a blanket garment, 
called a capote. None wore hat, cap, or coat, but the heads 
of both men and women were covered with madras cotton 
handkerchiefs, tied about in the fashion of night-caps. 
Voyageurs and hunters wore cloths of a blue color, folded 
in form of a turban. The fancy head-dresses which the 
women wore at balls and other festivities were often taste- 
fully trimmed with ribbons, and ornamented with gay flow- 
ers. The dress of the matron, although plain and of the 
antique short-waist, was frequently greatly varied according 



THE FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 141 

to the taste of the wearer. Both sexes wore moccasins, which, 
on public occasions, were variously decorated with shells, 
beads, and ribbons, yielding them a picturesque appear- 
ance. In Summertime bare feet was the rule. 

It was in 1720 that Major Pierre Dugue Boisbriant, 
some of whose descendants yet reside at Prairie du Rocher, 
accompanied by one hundred men, came up the river from 
New Orleans, and at a point sixteen miles above Kaskaskia 
built Fort Chartres. In 1721 Kaskaskia became a parish, 
and in 1722 the commandant issued the first land warrant 
known to the records of what is now Illinois. In 1721 Re- 
nault brought two hundred miners and five hundred slaves 
to work the mines he expected to discover, and in this year 
also the Jesuits established a college and monastery at 
Kaskaskia, while Fort Chartres became the centre of life and 
fashion in the West. Here the officers and their ladies held 
high carnival, and many a gay company made merry till the 
dawn. The traders in the villages, and at the fort, kept a 
heterogeneous stock of goods in one large room, where the 
assortment was fully displayed before the eyes of pur- 
chasers. Although poor agriculturists, judged by present 
standards, they raised not a little for export. In 1745 the 
Illinois country sent four hundred thousand pounds of grain 
to New Orleans. At this date the French population was 
about nine hundred souls all told. 

Day by day, year by year, almost the same scenes of 
indolent contentment were to be witnessed in all their vil- 
lages — at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Prairie du Rocher, Prairie 
du Pont, and St. Phillipe. The peasantry, in their pictur- 
esque costumes, conspicuous with coloring, mingled with 
gentlemen who, even in that wilderness, clung to the Parisian 
garb, with the French soldiers in their blue uniforms and 
white facings, the black-robed Jesuits, and the stolid Indian 
warriors. After 1721 black slaves were numerous through- 
out the settlements. These were originally San Domingo 



142 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

negroes brought by Renault to labor in his mines, but, 
twenty years later, sold to the colonists. The missionary 
Vivier wrote in 1750 : 

" We have here whites, negroes, and Indians, to say nothing of 
the cross-breeds. There are five French villages, and three of the 
natives, within a space of twenty-one leagues, situated between the 
Mississippi and another river called Kaskaskia, In the five French 
villages are, perhaps, eleven hundred whites, three hundred blacks, 
and some sixty red slaves, or savages. The three Indian towns do 
not contain more than eight hundred souls all told." 

Other little settlements were throughout the country, 
the merest pin-pricks on the great map of the wilderness. 
At Le Pe, now Peoria, at Chicago, possibly at Rock Island 
and Quincy, there were small stockaded forts with a few 
French settlers, largely half-breeds having native women 
for wives, gathered about them. A somewhat larger settle- 
ment, although constantly changing its inhabitants, was 
that of the lead miners in Jo Daviess County. A trading- 
post was established on the Missouri side of the river at New 
Madrid as early as 1740. The region was notable for its 
bears, and the principal trade of the inhabitants was the 
sale of bear's grease. Hence the voyageurs named it ** L'Anse 
de la Graisse " — Grease Bay. St. Genevieve in Missouri 
dates from about 1755. Following even more closely in 
point of time the Illinois settlements, came the occupation 
of the Wabash country. A stockade was built on the upper 
Wabash previous to 17 12, but that route eastward by water 
was not greatly used until after 17 16. This post was called 
Ouatanon, and occupied the present site of the city of La- 
fayette, Indiana, at the mouth of Little River. The forti- 
fied trading-post of Vincennes was established in 1722, but 
did not become a French settlement until about twelve years 
later. Besides the inevitable water communication existing 
between all these French outposts, land trails connected 
most of them, and they were always in comparatively close 



THE FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 143 

touch from the constant passing back and forth of voyageurs 
and coureurs de hois. In time of need these isolated com- 
munities furnished many volunteer soldiers to aid the French 
struggle to retain the West, the forces moving eastward 
along water-courses or over the land trails, and being repre- 
sented in every battle waged upon that long frontier. 

Thus in the very heart of the continent, more than a 
thousand miles from either ocean, flourished for nearly a 
hundred years these interesting communities of French pio- 
neers. Yet in all that time they accomplished little of perma- 
nent value, and to-day the fact of their former occupancy of 
this land is scarcely more than a dream. Their forts have 
crumbled into dust, their towns have disappeared beneath 
the encroaching waters of the great river which was once 
their highway, or, deserted by their inhabitants, have decayed 
and disappeared. Only a few remnants have escaped the 
inflowing tide of American population, and they also are 
fast losing the peculiarities of their fathers. 



CHAPTER X 

ON THE SITE OF MARAMECH: A GREAT INDIAN 

TRAGEDY 

WITHIN the present limits of Kendall County, two 
small streams unite in one, and, in less than a mile, 
flow into the Fox River. They are known as Little and Big 
Rock Creeks. Between these was located that famous 
ancient Indian village of Maramech, described by La 
Salle, and given prominent place upon Franquelin's map 
as early as 1684. Near here, many a year later, according 
to recently discovered French reports, occurred one of the 
most horrible tragedies of the Illinois country. The victims 
were Fox Indians, who, from the earliest settlement of this 
country, were almost the only western tribe with whom the 
invading French were unable to enter upon permanent 
terms of friendship. Mr. John F. Steward, in the Illinois 
Historical Transactions and in a book on the subject, has 
given the best and fullest account we have of the event. 

From the very earliest days of exploration and fur-trading 
the warriors of this important nation, it seems, exercised suf- 
ficient control over the more northern portages leading 
toward Canada to enable them to collect toll of the ad- 
venturous voyageurs eager to get their peltries to the far- 
away Montreal market. This led to constant bickering 
and trouble, and finally even to bloodshed and a beginning 
of frontier war. As early as 1712, Mr. Steward's researches 
tell us, Du Buisson, then commandant at Detroit, saw fit to 
organize numerous rival Indian tribes into a sort of loose con- 
federacy for the sole purpose of attacking these Foxes, and they 
were thus driven away from the streams they so long had 

144 



ON THE SITE OF MARAMECH 145 

dominated, after a brief but fierce battle. In 17 16 De 
Lignerie, commander at Mackinac, incensed by some outrage 
now unknown, once again moved against these same people, 
who were at that time located along the Wisconsin River, 
and, at Butte des Morts, wrought wholesale slaughter. 
Again in 1728 and in 1730 they were attacked, by new com- 
binations of vengeful enemies incited and led by Frenchmen, 
and finally were forced to fly for safety, their fields of corn 
destroyed, and their villages burned to the ground. 

It is this last expedition, the most important and bloody 
of all, with which this chapter especially deals, furnishing 
as it does a vivid and weird picture of the early dealings 
between the white and red occupants of the land. Harassed 
continually from every side by implacable enemies, those 
of their own race being constantly egged on to greater 
atrocities by the influence of French greed, the dispirited 
fragment of what had once been the strong Fox nation 
finally started eastward hoping, it is said, to find an asylum 
of safety among the powerful Iroquois. On this unfortunate 
retreat, for such it must be considered, the hastily fleeing 
tribe, according to Steward's researches, probably followed 
the old Kishwaukee trail leading southeastwardly, one 
of the many that centred at what is now believed to have been 
the former vast Indian town of Maramech. This was a very 
old track crossing the prairie, worn so deeply by moccasined 
Indian feet in the long ago as to remain plainly apparent 
until the land was finally broken up by the plough. In this 
migration of the Foxes, in their attempt to reach safety in 
the distant lodges of the Iroquois, probably between two 
and three hundred warriors, with an unusual proportion of 
women and children, plodded dejectedly along this ancient, 
narrow highway. 

On the journey they continually suffered attack from 
small parties of Mascoutins and Kickapoos, yet held grimly 
forward, beating back their wary assailants until they finally 



146 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

attained to the banks of the Fox, where they were reluctantly 
compelled to halt by the increasing number opposing pas- 
sage across the stream, and entrench themselves in crude 
Indian fashion. This consisted merely of building a large 
number of temporary shelters by digging shallow holes along 
the banks of the stream. Finding that they were unable 
to accomplish unaided the damage desired against these 
fleeing exiles, the wily Indian allies despatched hasty reports 
of the situation to the nearest French garrisons, then sta- 
tioned at Chartres, the fort on the St. Joseph, and Green 
Bay. St. Ange, at Chartres, was the more prompt to re- 
spond, leaving his post for the scene of action early in July, 
1730. He moved slowly up the Illinois River, in boats, and 
pushed forth into the more northern wilderness, having with 
him about five hundred men all told, including French and 
Indians from the Kaskaskia settlements. 

It was on the twelfth of August that St. Ange's scouts 
first came into actual touch with the Foxes, who were now 
strongly fortified in their primitive Indian fashion close to 
the old site of Maramech. On the seventeenth, forty Fox 
hunters were encountered in the woods, and after a sharp 
fight hastily driven back within their little fortification, 
which consisted of no more than a small grove of timber, 
enclosed with rude palisades, and situated upon a rather 
steep slope. 

Warned by these fleeing scouts of the fast approach of 
this new and dangerous hostile force, the Foxes, now com- 
pletely surrounded by their vengeful enemies and having 
no opportunity for further retreat, made every preparation 
possible for a stubborn defence. The warriors busied 
themselves hunting in an eff'ort to secure sufficient provi- 
sions to withstand a siege, while the women and old men 
worked at strengthening the fort in every way possible with 
their primitive tools. Within the stockade were crowded 
a thousand half-starved women and children. St. Ange, 




Photo, by R. E. Lincoln, Piano, 111. 

ON THE SITE OF MARAMECH 




MONUMENT ON THE SITE OF MARAMECH 

ERECTED BY JOHN T. STEWARD 



ON THE SITE OF MARAMECH 147 

as Mr. Steward's careful study would seem to show, immedi- 
ately approached from the southward, keeping well under 
cover of the heavy woods along the river bank; De Villiers, 
accompanied by French and Indians from Fort St. Joseph, 
was bearing down upon them from the east; while DeNoyelles 
with still others was hurrying over the great Sauk trail 
from Detroit, eager to be in at the death. At last St. Ange 
left his partial concealment, and, crossing the river with his 
men, penned the desperate Foxes more closely within their 
little stockade of logs, and began the siege, opening fire on 
every savage whose head appeared above the defences. 

A few days later, but before any serious fighting had yet 
occurred, De Villiers succeeded in joining him, bringing 
fifty Frenchmen and five hundred Indians to augment the 
force of besiegers. Assaults were immediately attempted, 
but these the desperate Fox warriors hurled fiercely back 
with heavy loss, and the siege continued, the besiegers daily 
advancing closer against the walls of the fort by use of the 
spade. In final desperation the now starving Foxes sent 
forth a peace party, begging for some satisfactory terms of 
surrender, and De Villiers, who was in command of the 
attack, was apparently inclined to be merciful, but his pur- 
pose was overborne by the influence of the allied savages. It 
was at about this time that De Noyelles arrived on the scene, 
having with him ten Frenchmen and two hundred Indians. 
He brought positive orders that no quarter should be granted 
the defenders. Under his instructions, the lines were drawn 
yet closer, and the exchange of fire became constant. 
Hunger soon reigned on both sides, even the allies them- 
selves, although perfectly free to hunt, being reduced to 
eating their shields of rawhide. How those cooped up 
helplessly within the narrow confines of the little fort sufi^ered 
no pen can tell; the story of their desperation died with them. 

Day by day they were pressed harder, the walls being 
several times assaulted; many of the defenders perished, 



148 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

some from starvation, others in open battle. St. Ange 
built a small fort, almost within pistol shot, thinking thus 
to effectually shut off" the water supply of the agonized 
garrison, but the desperate Foxes managed to tunnel through 
the hard, rocky earth, and thus secured sufficient to keep 
them alive. On the eighth of September a violent storm 
arose, which was followed by a dark, cold night. The sen- 
tinels of the allied French and Indians, already wearied by 
the long siege, became careless; vigilance relaxed along the 
besieging lines, and in the intense blackness of the night 
the watchful Foxes discovered an unguarded lane, and 
burst through their enemies unnoticed. The chance crying 
of a child is said to have been the first sound which alarmed 
the unsuspecting sentries of the sleeping allies, but amid 
the intense gloom and uncertainty of the night, they were 
completely baffled as to the direction of the flight. 

With earliest coming of daylight the fierce pursuers, 
burning now for vengeance, were upon the trail of the hapless 
fugitives. These latter made every eff'ort to defend them- 
selves, but the mere weight of numbers pressing hard and 
relentlessly upon their rear was sufl&cient to ensure defeat. 
Placing their women, children, and old men in the van of 
retreat, the despairing warriors remained nobly behind to 
battle. But the attack was exceedingly fierce, and the over- 
whelming allies drove through them, hurling them helplessly 
aside in the mad shock of their assault. The dead and the 
prisoners, many of whom were remorselessly tortured and 
few spared, numbered about three hundred warriors, and 
one thousand women and children. 

At the centre of what was probably the original enclosure 
Mr. Steward has erected a monument, made of a great 
bowlder, with a suitable inscription carved thereon, in 
commemoration of this great border tragedy of the old 
French regime. Nothing could be more impressive, for 
not only does this granite stand there in memory of a brave 



ON THE SITE OF MARAMECH 



149 



people and a heroic deed, but back even of this occurrence 
within the recorded story of white men, loom the fabled 
legends of generations of Indian life in this mysterious old 
town of Maramech, famous in song and story, whose true 
history can never be written by mortal pen, yet will remain 
for ever a fascinating romance of the Illinois country. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE SPANISH INVASION — ILLINOIS IN THE 
REVOLUTION 

DURING the first years of American control of the 
lUinois country the official neighbor upon the west, 
separated only by the rolling waters of the Mississippi, 
was Spain. And more than once in those stirring border 
days of bluster and bold fighting, were peaceful relations 
severely strained, and the two nationalities brought to 
the very verge of serious acts of hostility. 

The Spanish capital of what somewhat later became 
officially known as Upper Louisiana was the little village of 
St. Louis, which the French had founded in 1764 as a trading- 
post. Around its scattered houses, because of a predatory 
attack made by English and Indians in 1780, the Spaniards 
had erected a log stockade, with a small stone fort or two 
standing close by. Its commander this year of which we now 
treat, 1781, was Don Francesco Cruvat, Brevet Lieutenant- 
Colonel of Infantry. In January of that same eventful 
year, there marched forth from his little garrison at St. Louis 
those Spanish soldiers who for the first and only time bore 
the flag of that nation triumphantly across Illinois ter- 
ritory. It is an interesting and picturesque story, but one 
apparently not deemed of sufficient historical importance 
to be given the space it perhaps truly deserves. Certainly 
until treated by Mr. E. G. Mason, in his interesting " Illinois 
Sketches," it has remained almost totally ignored. 

In this party of adventurers — for they were little more — 
there were sixty-five militia-men. Of these, thirty are re- 
ported to have been Spanish, the remainder probably being 

150 



THE SPANISH IN FAS ION 151 

of French blood. Sixty Indians, recruited from various 
Western tribes, accompanied them as allies. Don Eugenio 
Pourre was the Commander of this company, and probably 
the only man in the entire party who comprehended fully 
the purposes of the expedition. He was a Captain in the 
Spanish line. Next to him in rank stood Don Carlos Tayon, 
a Lieutenant in the royal service, while the others of impor- 
tance and some note were Don Luis Chevalier, " a man 
well versed in the language of the Indians," expected to act 
as interpreter, and two grave warrior chieftains, w^hom the 
Spaniards called Eleturno and Naquigen. 

And what was the cause for all this stern and warlike 
array } Merely this — it was apparently a faint echo from 
far across the sea, of a great European quarrel, the war 
then being desperately waged by Spain against England. 
In this cause the isolated garrison at St. Louis, anxious 
enough for some excitement, had boldly determined to bear 
their part, and now planned a swift stroke against the nearest 
fort over which floated defiantly the hated English banner. 
This chanced to be the old fort of St. Joseph, situated on 
the river of that name, in what is now Southern Michigan. 
The exact spot where this old stockade once stood is scarcely 
agreed upon by any two historians, the majority of them 
locating it either at the mouth of the St. Joseph River, 
where La Salle's Fort Miami probably stood, or else up 
that placid stream as far as the ancient portage to the Kan- 
kakee, near South Bend, Indiana. Mason decides, after 
most careful study of the various maps of that early day, 
that this fortification more likely occupied the south bank 
of the St. Joseph River, and was situated about one mile 
west of the present town of Niles, Michigan. Whatever may 
have been its exact site, it was certainly no ordinary journey 
which now lay before these adventurous Spaniards. As 
Mr. Mason writes, " Many marches far more famous have 
been of less extent and with fewer privations." It was mid- 



152 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

winter when they started, the ground already covered deeply 
with newly fallen snow, the forest trees bare of foliage, the 
rivers locked in ice, and the desolate prairies deserted of 
game. Four hundred miles and more of Indian-haunted 
plain and forest stretched between them and their destina- 
tion, while at the end of that difficult journey an enemy 
awaited their stealthy approach whose strength was but 
poorly known. And they started forth unusually heavily 
laden for such a march, not only bearing necessary provis- 
ions for the long journey, and sufficient stores of ammunition 
for the anticipated battle, but also stocks of merchandise, 
with which it was hoped to buy safe passage through the 
many savage tribes then in close alliance with England, 
across whose country they must necessarily pass on their 
way. 

This march, while possibly in no way intended at the 
time of its conception to involve the struggling eastern 
American colonies, led directly across Illinois territory, 
which had been already won to the American cause by 
Clark's bordermen, and was hence an armed invasion, 
which might naturally lead to unpleasant consequences. 
Moreover, the French settlement at Le Pe had to be avoided, 
lest an attempt be made here to oppose their progress. As 
Mason says: 

" Nor could these bold fellows take the most direct route to the 
point of attack, as preceding expeditions had done, for no man 
might face the Grand Prairie in midwinter and expect to survive. 
For shelter, and for water and fuel as well, they were compelled to 
follow the courses of the streams and the woods which bordered 
them, and so they journeyed patiently northeastward, pushing for- 
ward in the teeth of the wintry blasts which grew ever colder and 
more dreary. By day they plodded onward, laden with their heavy 
burdens, having before them only the ice-covered streams on the 
one hand, and the straggling forests, with glimpses of the vast 
white plains beyond, on the other." 



THE SPANISH INVASION 



53 



The light-hearted Frenchmen in that struggling column 
needed all their natural cheeriness to keep up heart under 
such conditions, and it was a time when the Spaniards 
might recall encouragingly the deeds of those daring cavaliers 
of their race in many a desperate venture of the wilderness. 
The weather proved more severe than usual even in that 
Winter-swept country, and their supplies of food soon became 
distressingly scant. Every mile of advance only added to 
their sufferings, and they were compelled by fast-increasing 
weakness to throw aside much of their loads, while those 
in command continually urged the wearied men to renewed 
exertion. 

The records of this long-neglected march across the 
Illinois wilderness are exceedingly scanty, so much so that 
it is impossible to trace with any certainty the route followed. 
It is supposed, from the recent discovery there of ancient 
cannon balls of European manufacture, that the present 
site of Danville may have been crossed, and it is suspected 
that some trouble was experienced there in getting past an 
important Indian village; yet all we truly know is that 
this band of determined invaders actually moved slowly 
and painfully across the whole of what is now Illinois, buf- 
feted by wintry storms, their general direction being from 
southwest to northeast, and, leaving the present limits 
certainly not far from Danville, turned more northerly, and 
struck through swamp lands straight toward the old Kan- 
kakee portage, about where South Bend now stands. All 
along the latter portion of this wearisome route they bought 
their safe passage through the English Indian allies by the 
free use of presents from their fast-depleting stocks, but 
after finally reaching the banks of the St. Joseph they threw 
all prudence to the winds, and rushed eagerly forward to 
win their battle by surprising the English garrison. 

Far more easily than they had dreamed as being possible 
was this end accomplished. Totally unwarned and unpre- 



154 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

pared, the few English traders and soldiers gathered within 
the stockade were quickly made prisoners of war, and Fort 
St. Joseph was held as belonging to the far-distant King of 
Spain. In Mason's words, " He was the sixth sovereign 
who had borne sway there, if we include in the list La Salle 
and Pontiac, who in truth were kinglier men than any of 
the others." And so, in his turn, Don Eugenio Pourre, 
Captain of the line, took possession in the name of his Most 
Catholic Majesty. He lowered the English flag, and floated 
the glaring Spanish colors proudly overhead during all the 
brief period of his stay. His men plundered the fort with 
the thoroughness born of long experience, giving the greater 
portion of the spoils thus obtained to their own selves, and 
what they left to those Indians who had permitted them to 
pass so easily. But they remained on the spot merely the 
few days sufficient to recruit their strength, knowing full 
well so exposed a post could never be permanently defended 
against English reenforcements. They had struck their 
blow; now discretion was realized to be the better part of 
valor. The march homeward was accomplished without 
special incident. Early in March, 1781, Don Eugenio, 
bearing in his hands the captured English ensign, made 
formal report in St. Louis to Don Francesco Cruvat regard- 
ing the success of his adventure. A full year later this 
report was received in distant Spain. 

There was doubtless more in this expedition than appears 
upon the surface, and from it the wily Spanish diplomats 
may have hoped to attain an end to which this marauding 
trip was merely an incident. Spain had an ambition at 
that time, as well as later, to grasp as her own the entire 
Mississippi valley, and this swift raid of Pourre's through 
Illinois' midwinter may have been planned but as a stepping- 
stone toward the realization of that fond dream of final con- 
quest. The attempt failed, not through any unwillingness 
of European allies to assist, but because of the vigorous 



THE SPANISH INVASION 155 

opposition and protest made by Jay, Franklin, and Adams on 
the part of the United States. An able commentator says: 
" Counsellors less wise, less firm than they, might have 
yielded to these veiled Spanish claims, especially as they 
were warmly supported by France, and had they done so all 
this northwestern territory would have become Spanish 
soil, with the Ohio as the extreme western boundary of the 
Union." So, not only as a picturesque incident of early 
border life, but as an illustration of crafty diplomacy, born 
in European cabals, is it worth while to remember the pass- 
ing and repassing across the Illinois prairies of this invading 
flag of Spain. Unwitting and careless, those red and white 
border soldiers did their little part, mere pawns in the great 
game of empire which was being played out in the cabinets 
of far-off Madrid and Paris. 

It is indeed odd what an important part this little insig- 
nificant stockade situated on the banks of the St. Joseph River 
played during all the revolutionary struggle in the West, 
and how there seemed to centre in that particular spot, now 
so hard to locate, every eflPort made by Illinois patriots to 
strike a blow in aid of the cause of Independence. As early 
as October, 1777, it was surprised and captured by Illinois- 
ans. Tom Brady, a genial Kaskaskia Irishman, better 
known as " Monsieur Tom," associated with a Canadian 
half-breed named Hamelin then residing at Cahokia, led 
a little party of sixteen daring volunteers to the attack. 
They crept in under cover of night, capturing and paroling 
the garrison of twenty-one regulars; seized a considerable 
amount of merchandise, burned what they could not conven- 
iently carry away with them, and, upon leaving, wantonly 
set fire to the buildings and stockade. Rendered careless 
from the easy success of their lawless venture, they were 
promptly overtaken on the Calumet River, not far from 
the present South Chicago, by those same regulars whom they 
had just paroled, together with a number of hastily recruited 



156 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Indians. A hot fight followed, but at the end of it, several 
being killed, two after having surrendered, Brady and twelve 
of his men were held prisoners. He was sent overland to 
Canada, under guard, escaped, when near Montreal, and, 
by means of a long toilsome journey, finally found his way 
back to Kaskaskia, married the famous widow Le Comte, 
and was later elected sheriff of St. Clair County. Mason 
pertinently remarks in this connection: " His career illus- 
trates the indomitable character of the Illinois office-seeker. 
Warfare, imprisonment, exile, hardships, all were unavail- 
ing to prevent Tom Brady from returning to his bailiwick 
and securing an office." 

But Fort St. Joseph was not destined to remain long in 
peace. The failure of Brady's expedition, together with 
the capture and death of many of his men, served to awaken 
a spirit of revenge along the entire Illinois frontier. Dur- 
ing the Summer of 1778 Paulette Meillet, then residing near 
the site of Peoria, of which he was credited as being 
the founder, and a man of note among fur traders, led a 
force consisting of three hundred French, Indians, and 
half-breeds from that place along the water-courses of the 
Illinois and Kankakee to St. Joseph. Reports of his 
approach flew before him, so that surprise of the garrison 
proved impossible, but his force was sufficiently large to 
venture upon an open assault, and the impetuous mob 
of red and white invaders surged fiercely over the palis- 
ades, and once again the English flag came down at a 
run. The garrison was paroled, the fort once more looted 
and set on fire, after which the victorious Illinoisans, bear- 
ing with them it is said fifty thousand dollars in stores, 
safely retraced their steps to the security of the Peoria Lake. 

Another revolutionary expedition was yet later organized 
in the Illinois country, but its results were only death and 
defeat. It is a strange story, and there is wrapped up in it 
a character that remains one of the mysteries of history. 



THE SPANISH INVASION 157 

Early in the revolutionary struggle, a young French officer 
calling himself La Balme came to this country, presumably 
for the purpose of joining the Colonial army. That he was 
a man of refinement and education, as well as some social in- 
fluence, is evidenced by his journal, which has been preserved. 
Yet apparently he never united with the Continental troops, 
nor is there any record preserved showing that he ever held 
commission or authority from our government, or that of 
Virginia, Nevertheless, he suddenly appeared in the Illinois 
country, with plenty of arms and money, and began recruit- 
ing a force of volunteers ostensibly to attack the strongly 
garrisoned British post at Detroit. This occurred quite 
soon after Clark's conquest of the Northwest, and the 
French people of the Illinois were naturally in a frame of 
mind to be easily led into such an enterprise. La Balme 
certainly became very popular. One of Clark's officers 
wrote, " The people run after him as if he was the very 
Masiah himself"; but he was unable to discover by what 
government authority the man was acting. 

In spite of his lack of credentials, strong companies of 
young men were easily enrolled at Kaskaskia and Cahokia, 
and at the head of these La Balme marched triumphantly 
across the State to Vincennes, where he gathered nearly 
as many more to his desperate enterprise. The French 
girls became enthusiastic, and sang songs of encouragement 
for the volunteers, urging all the young men of their acquaint- 
ance to enlist, and treating lightly those laggards who hesi- 
tated. He left Vincennes with a well-equipped force behind 
him, ascended the Wabash, and, making a sudden attack 
on an English trading-post called Kekionga, near the pres- 
ent city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, captured it with all its 
stores. Flushed with this easy success, and as yet indepen- 
dent of all military discipline, that night La Balme's force 
kept very poor guard over their encampment on the banks 
of the little river Aboite. The result of this carelessness 



158 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

was their complete undoing. The enraged traders hastily 
collected the Indians in the neighborhood, and before 
morning dawned burst impetuously from out the forest 
upon the unsuspecting lUinoisans, killed La Balme, routed 
his forces, and recaptured their goods. To this day no one 
knows by what authority this expedition was organized; but 
had its leader succeeded in capturing Detroit according to 
his plans, the name of La Balme might have stood in Illinois 
history beside that of George Rogers Clark. As it is, he 
remains merely a memory, and nothing more. 

There exist a few other traditional accounts of indepen- 
dent forays and skirmishes occurring along the Illinois fron- 
tier, associated with the revolutionary struggle, helping to 
show that the Illinoisans of that early age, although mostly 
of French blood, were eager enough to strike a blow for the 
cause of freedom. Indeed this spirit was evidenced at even 
a much earlier period. When first the English banner was 
unfurled above old Fort Chartres, those that remained of 
the ancient French population immediately demanded their 
rights as citizens in no uncertain terms. Practically they 
said to the English authorities sent to rule over them, " We 
have become English subjects by the terms of the Treaty of 
Paris, and we want the rights of Englishmen." This spirit 
of manly independence grew, and the French bordermen of 
Illinois were not one whit behind their Eastern brethren in 
boldly asserting their demands. It is an interesting chapter, 
and one long neglected, until written of by Mr. Mason. In 
1 77 1 the scattered people of Illinois met in mass meeting 
at Kaskaskia, although it is impossible to ascertain by whom 
the call was issued, and forwarded a peremptory demand 
to the English government, protesting against the tyranny 
of those placed in authority over them, asking for institu- 
tions like those in the Connecticut colony, and the right 
to appoint their own governor and all civil magistrates. 
We must remember in this connection that, at this date, 



THE SPJNISH INVASION 159 

Connecticut alone of all the Eastern colonies, preserved her 
ancient charter, and remained comparatively free of Eng- 
lish rule. 

This demand of the Illinoisans was sent forward through 
the regular military channels to General Gage, who was then 
in command at Boston. In transmitting this precious doc- 
ument to the home authorities Gage endorsed it, " A regular 
constitutional government for the people of Illinois cannot 
be suggested. They don't deserve so much attention." " I 
agree with you," added Lord Hillsborough, then at the 
head of the British colonial office, " a regular government 
for that district would be highly improper." His successor. 
Lord Dartmouth, took a similar view, and immediately 
drew up what he termed " A Sketch of Government for 
Illinois," and returned it with his compliments, into the 
western wilderness, trusting thus to settle the whole affair. 
It was extremely simple and utterly unsatisfactory. It pro- 
vided in a few terse paragraphs, arrogantly British in every 
sentence, that all powers should be vested in officers appointed 
by the Crown, and none left to the selection of the people. 
Immediately a storm of wrath swept over distant Illinois. 
With apparently no formally issued call for such a meeting 
of protest, the entire population of the surrounding country 
surged into Kaskaskia to vent their indignation in speech. 
Daniel Blouin, a French-Canadian fur trader, whose name 
should be preserved in our records with special honor, came 
to the front as leader. Acting as the mouthpiece of those 
earnest souls behind him, he sent to Lord Dartmouth a 
protest against his " Sketch of Government," expressed in 
no uncertain language. The " Sketch " was rejected " as 
oppressive and absurd, much worse than that of any of the 
French, or even of the Spanish colonies." And to this inso- 
lence was boldly added : " Should a government so evidently 
tyrannical be established, it could be of no long duration. 
There would exist the necessity of its being abolished." 



i6o HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

This was away back in 1771, and occurred in the very 
heart of the IlHnois wilderness. There was certainly some- 
thing heroic and stirring about the defiant attitude of this 
little isolated band of men, largely uneducated, foreign 
of birth, who had been transferred by fate of war to the 
British Crown, yet insisted boldly on every right which that 
transfer gave them. " They were not born free," in the 
words of Mason, who has made the most careful investigation 
of this incident, " but they were determined to die free," and 
thus early in that great controversy leading up to the struggle 
of the Revolution, these men of obscure Illinois stood dar- 
ingly forth, rebels for freedom. It is worth while that we 
remember it, and write the name of Daniel Blouin, of 
Kaskaskia, with the deed of these early protestants, high 
on the roll of honor. 

Twice during the continuance of the revolutionary 
struggle was the Illinois country invaded by hostile British 
arms. The first invasion occurred in 1779, soon after 
Clark's conquest, and was directed against the French 
trading-post of Le Pe, near where Peoria stands. The force 
used consisted almost entirely of Indians, recruited about 
Mackinac, but was commanded by Charles de Verville, a 
Canadian in the British service. He followed the water- 
way from the Chicago portage, surprised the unsuspecting 
French settlers, capturing and burning their stockade. No 
attempt, however, was made to hold the place, and the 
motley company retraced their steps, laden with spoils and 
a few prisoners. 

The second expedition, which occurred the following 
year, was planned for more permanent results, but ended 
in failure because of an evident misunderstanding of orders 
on the part of the commanders of the separate columns en- 
gaged. St. Louis, then a Spanish village, was the principal 
point of attack, and a horde of Indians, recruited on the Fox 
and Wisconsin Rivers, and commanded by British officers, 



THF SPANISH INVASION i6i 

was despatched down the Mississippi, expecting to cooperate 
with a similar body advancing from the south. The latter 
failed to appear, and the expedition degenerated into a mere 
raid, the allied Indians being finally scattered and driven 
back to their northern haunts. Charles de Longlade en- 
deavored to assist in this affair by leading a party of savages 
into the Illinois country by way of the Chicago portage, but 
arrived too late. " Old Jean Baptiste Pointe au Sable, the 
negro trader then living along the Chicago River," comments 
Mason, " saw them come and go, but was protected by his 
British commission, and suffered nothing at their hands." 
Elsewhere it is stated that probably Clark first unfolded 
the United States flag on Illinois soil near Fort Massac. 
It is possible, however, that it was seen here even earlier. 
In 1778 James Willing, a Captain in the Continental army, 
built an armed vessel at Fort Pitt, and set out upon a cruise 
down the Ohio. He certainly skirted the entire boundary 
of Southern Illinois, captured a number of traders, and 
greatly alarmed the commandant at Kaskaskia. But 
Willing turned down the Mississippi, and after a series of 
adventures was captured at Mobile. It is not at all improb- 
able that at his adventurous mast-head defiantly floated the 
newly designed Stars and Stripes. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE EARLY LEAD-MINERS OF FEVER RIVER' 

AS early as 1659 the French became aware that the Ind- 
ians procured lead in the neighborhood of Fever River, 
now the Galena, in the northwestern corner of the present 
Illinois. Radisson and Groseilliers were the first to make 
definite mention of this rumor, which came to them from 
the lips of the Sioux. Hennepin's map of 1687 locates a 
recognized lead mine near where Galena now stands, while 
Joutel, visiting that neighborhood the same year, gives 
definite description of several such mines throughout the 
region. During 1690, Nicholas Perrot, at that date French 
commandant of the West, established a small trading and 
military stockade on the eastern bank of the Mississippi 
opposite Dubuque, and visited the Indian mines in person, 
but seemingly this establishment was but temporary. Cer- 
tainly the Indians frequently brought to the few adventurers 
then in the country numerous specimens of this lead ore. 

But nothing permanent appears to have been attempted 
regarding development of these finds previous to 1699. 
Some six years earlier Le Sueur, then commandant at Che- 
quamegon Bay, extended his widening explorations through- 
out this region, finally erecting a fort of some considerable 
size and importance on a large island in the Mississippi 
somewhere between Lake Pepin and the mouth of the St. 
Croix. While at this work he reports " discovering mines 

' Much of the historical data in this chapter was long hidden away in 
the pages of local newspapers and unpublished manuscripts, until dug out, 
and lately published, by Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites, to whom the present 
writer acknowledges his indebtedness for facts. 

162 



EARLY LEAD-MINERS OF FEVER RIVER 163 

of lead, copper, and blue and green earth," and as a result of 
such discoveries went to France hoping to gain permission 
from the French authorities to work them somewhat to 
his own profit. On his return he arrived in Louisiana 
with D'Iberville's second expedition, in December, 1699. 
Under the King's commission Le Sueur had with him thirty 
miners, and was accompanied by one Penicaut, who acted 
as personal companion and reporter. This latter wrote an 
account of the expedition, quoted by Dr. Thwing, in his 
most valuable essay on this subject, and, after describing 
graphically the rapids in the Mississippi at Rock Island, 
says : 

" We found both on the right and left bank the lead mines, 
called to this day the mines of Nicholas Perrot, the name of the 
discoverer. Twenty leagues from there on the right, was found the 
mouth of a large river, the Ouisconsin." 

By United States land survey. Dr. Thwing states, the 
distance has since been measured at thirty-nine English 
miles. It was nearly the middle of August, 1700, when 
these adventurers arrived opposite the mouth of Fever River, 
which Penicaut called " Riviere a la Mine." He tells us 
that up this little stream, only about a league and a half, 
there was seen " a lead mine in the prairie." Passing farther 
up the Mississippi, a number of others were likewise dis- 
covered, but these latter were within the limits of Wiscon- 
sin rather than Illinois. La Sueur passed the following 
Winter on the Blue River, but for some reason now un- 
known made no further effort to profit by his valuable dis- 
coveries; the following Summer he abandoned the country 
and returned to France, having accomplished nothing from 
his concession. 

Very little more was heard regarding these deposits for 
fifteen years, although wandering coureurs de hois traded 
with the Indians thereabout for sufficient lead to supply their 
own immediate requirements. In 17 15, La Mothe Cadillac, 



1 64 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Governor of Louisiana, came up into the Illinois country 
searching for silver, but had to be satisfied with carrying 
back some samples of lead ore taken " from mines fourteen 
miles west of the river," probably those near Dubuque. 
In 1 72 1, there arrived in the Illinois, accompanied by a 
numerous company of miners and San Domingo slaves, 
Philippe Francois de Renault, newly appointed " director- 
general of the mines of the Royal India Company in Illinois." 
His parties of prospectors ranged widely along both sides 
of the Mississippi, probably as high up as Minnesota and 
Wisconsin, and during the four years spent in the district 
made numerous discoveries of lead, but principally within 
the present limits of Missouri. After the final dispersion 
of Renault's settlement in Monroe County, the next direct 
reference to the upper lead mines is given by M. le Guis in 
1743, when he describes at some length the methods then 
employed by " eighteen or twenty " miners he saw operating 
on Fever River. Mentioning no names he speaks of them 
as ** a fast lot, every man working for himself at surface 
operations, and extracting only enough to secure a bare 
existence throughout the year." 

His graphic report of these early smelting operations 
is interesting: 

" They cut down two or three big trees and divide them in 
logs five feet longj then they dig a small basin in the ground, and 
pile three or four of these logs on top of each other over this 
basin ; then they cover it with the same wood, and put three more 
logs, shorter than the others, on top, and one at each end cross- 
ways. This makes a kind of box, in which they put the mineral, 
then they pile as much wood as they can on top, and around it. 
When this is done they set fire to it from under; the logs burn up 
and partly melt the mineral. They are sometimes obliged to repeat 
the same operation three times in order to extract all the matter. 
This matter falling into the basin, forms a lump, which they after- 
ward melt over again into bars weighing from sixty to eighty 



EARLY LEAD-MINERS OF FEVER RIVER 165 

pounds, in order to facilitate the transportation to Kaskaskia. This 
is done with horses, who are quite vigorous in the country. One 
horse generally carries four or five of these bars. It is worthy of 
remark that, in spite of the bad system, there has been taken out of 
the La Motte mine 2,500 of these bars in 1741, 2,228 in 1742, 
and these men only work four or five months in the year at most." 

Modern miners, Dr. Thwaites remarks, in quoting this 
report, will see in this description little difference in method 
from that followed by later American operators up to the 
time of the introduction of the Drummond blast furnace 
in 1836. 

Until November, 1762, France was in complete control 
of both sides of the Mississippi River, and Eastern Missouri 
and Eastern Iowa were referred to in French reports as be- 
ing part of the Illinois country. This fact creates some 
slight confusion as to the location of mines. Little, how- 
ever, remains of record regarding the development of the 
mineral deposits constantly being discovered in the real 
Illinois, although it is evident, from subsequent English 
writings, that these opportunities were not wholly neglect- 
ed. In the Journal of Captain Henry Gordon, written in , 
1766, occurs this mention in proof that the mines were 
continually operated : 

*' The French have large boats of twenty tons, rowed with 
twenty oars, which will go in seventy odd days from New Orleans 
to the Illinois. These boats go to the Illinois twice a year, and are 
not half loaded on their return ; was there any produce worth 
sending to market, they could carry it at no great expense. They, 
however, carry lead, the produce of a mine on the French side of 
the river, which yields but a small quantity, as they have not hands 
to work it. These boats, in times of the floods, which happen only 
in May and June, go down to New Orleans from the Illinois in 
fourteen and sixteen days." 

The earliest application on record for any grant of lead- 
mining land within the valley of the Upper Mississippi is 



1 66 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

credited to one Duralde in 1769. It was signed by Belle 
Rive, the commandant at Fort Chartres. This tract em- 
braced land " three arpents in front, by the ordinary depth" 
(probably forty arpents), on Le Sueur's River of the Mines 
(Fever River), ** a hundred and sixty leagues, more or less, 
above St. Louis." Dr. Thw^aites decides, from the general 
tone of Duralde's petition, that he must have been a ne'er- 
do-w^ell, and certain it is that he never settled on his lands, 
or operated any mines. So far as Illinois is concerned, 
the next person of importance to appear in this upper wil- 
derness was Julien Dubuque. The exact date of his entrance 
to the immediate region remains obscured, but he soon be- 
came a man of influence among the surrounding Indian 
tribes, and proved himself possessed of what the majority 
of his nationality seemed to lack, business energy. He 
first obtained, in 1788, permission to work the lead mines 
undisturbed, from a council of the Sacs and Foxes, with 
whom he was on the most friendly terms as a traderr The 
greater part of Dubuque's mining operations were carried 
on west of the Mississippi near where the city bearing his 
name now stands. These were known then as " The Spanish 
Mines," possibly because some of that race had originally 
discovered them, although Dubuque had made several ad- 
ditional discoveries of his own. 

But Dubuque, always full of abounding energy, did not 
entirely restrict himself to these operations on the west 
shore. Tradition whispers that at the time of his first 
location at the Spanish mines, a man named Du Bois was 
engaged alone in working a lead mine on the Illinois shore 
nearly opposite — probably a little south of the present 
village of Dunleith. There had been considerable Indian 
trouble in that country, originating over the desire of the 
whites to mine for lead. As late as 1780 it was reported 
by Lieutenant Governor Patrick Sinclair that the Sacs and 
Foxes were in active alliance with the Spanish and Amer- 



EARLY LEAD-MINERS OF FEVER RIVER 167 

ican (probably meaning French) miners against further 
British encroachment. The result was that the British in 
their turn sought savage allies. The Winnebagoes and Meno- 
minees assisted them in an open attack on a party of these 
miners, and seventeen Americans and Spaniards were taken 
as prisoners to Mackinac. But this state of affairs did not 
greatly trouble Dubuque, who retained friendship with all 
the tribes, and his prospectors and miners continued to 
roam at will over the northern Illinois country. They cer- 
tainly opened leads on Apple River near the present village 
of Elizabeth, and in 1805 were operating the Old Buck 
and Hog leads on Fever River. Undoubtedly there were 
at this time more white miners in the region than we have 
any means of tracing. 

Nearly all of these oldest mines were originally worked 
in superficial fashion by Indians. Probably a few had so 
been operated for fully a century before the arrival of 
white men. In those earlier times their tools were buck- 
horns, many of which were found in abandoned drifts by 
the first settlers. Something of the nature of their oper- 
ations has been recorded, and described by Dr. Thwaites, 
The savages would load their ore at the bottom of the shaft 
into deerskin bags, and hoist or drag it to the surface by 
means of long thongs of hide. The lower work was perform- 
ed almost entirely by old men and squaws, the warriors doing 
the smelting above. Dubuque, through his influence as a 
trader, made considerable use of the Indians in all his mining 
adventures. Besides working them in his mines, he em- 
ployed others in wide prospecting tours, continually seeking 
new leads. When any were thus discovered and reported 
to him, he would at once despatch Canadians, or half-breeds, 
to prove up the claims. " In this manner," comments 
Thwaites, " almost the entire lead region of Iowa, Wiscon- 
sin, and Illinois became occupied by Dubuque's men, 
before the Americans came in for permanent settlement." 



i68 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

It was a case where possession was fully nine points of 
the law. 

On the east, or Illinois, side of the river he met, however, 
with some considerable opposition from representatives 
of the American Fur Company, who, through friendship 
with the chiefs of the Foxes, obtained considerable supplies 
of lead, and are even said to have smelted some for them- 
selves. But it was not until after France in 1803 disposed 
of her rights in all this Western territory to the United States, 
that Dubuque began to meet with any decided competition, 
nor was that destined to become serious, as his death occurred 
in 1 8 10. The first adventurous American of whom we 
have distinct trace to try his fortune in this region was 
George E. Jackson, a Missouri miner. He built a rude 
log furnace as early as 181 1 on an island, which has since 
disappeared. From accounts preserved it lay then near 
the eastern bank of the river, just below Dunleith, about 
opposite the mouth of Catfish Creek. Jackson took his 
store of lead down the river by flat-boat, accompanied by 
one assistant, and is reported to have had a great deal of 
trouble with hostile Indians on the way. Indeed all these 
earlier American miners were greatly harassed by the sav- 
ages, although the French appear to have had little trouble. 
A year or so later, one John S. Miller, possibly Jackson's 
earlier assistant, became associated with him as a partner, but 
very soon after this the island was abandoned by both men, 
probably on account of trouble with the Indians. Five 
years later Miller came back, accompanied by two com- 
panions, traded some lead for goods at Dubuque's old 
mines, and penetrated the country as far as Galena, remain- 
ing for some years in the district, but accomplishing little in 
mining. 

Even at this period, and for considerable time following, 
nearly all the practical lead-mining was performed by Ind- 
ian labor, although occasionally under white supervision. 



EARLY LEAD-MINERS OF FEVER RIVER 169 

Practical white miners penetrated the district very slowly. 
Nicholas Boilvin, writing to the Secretary of War under 
date of February, 181 1, reports that the Sacs and Foxes on 
the east side of the river, and the lowas on the west side 
had " mostly abandoned the chase, and turned their atten- 
tion to the manufacture of lead." He reports that in 1810 
they manufactured four hundred thousand pounds of the 
metal and disposed of it to Canadian traders. As early as 
1810 Henry Shreeve bought lead of Indian miners on Fever 
River, taking a small boat-load down the Mississippi. The 
War of 1 8 12 created a lead demand, and resulted in an un- 
usual output under the supervision of English officers. Dur- 
ing the five years between 18 15 and 1820 Captain John 
Shaw made eight trips in a trading boat between St. Louis 
and Prairie du Chien. At the Fever River mines he saw 
Indians smelting ore in rude furnaces, and at one time 
bought from them seventy tons of metal, without in any 
considerable measure reducing their supply. 

Meanwhile the commercial rivalry existing between 
the French-Canadians, operating by way of the lakes, and 
the rapidly encroaching Americans pushing up the river, 
was becoming more acute, even resulting in armed inter- 
vention and bloodshed. As these operations were being 
carried on in the very heart of the Indian country all parties 
concerned — traders, prospectors, and miners — travelled 
heavily armed, and any chance meeting of the bitterly war- 
ring elements was apt to result in open conflict. Details 
of such hostile meetings are lacking, but up to 18 19 it is known 
that several American traders, attempting to open negoti- 
ations with Indian miners in opposition to the interests of 
Canadian traders, had been waylaid and killed. In 1815 
a crew of American boatmen endeavoring to pole their way 
up Fever River were stopped by the Indians themselves, 
probably instigated by Canadian influence. Colonel George 
Davenport, however, as agent of the American Fur Com- 



170 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

pany, was on most cordial terms with the chiefs of the Sacs 
and Foxes, and at one time erected a trading-post near the 
mouth of the Fever, and so far as known, experienced no 
difficulty. He has the credit of shipping to St. Louis the 
first flat-boat cargo of lead coming direct from the Fever 
River mines. This was in 1816, but it is probable others 
were sent down earlier, but failed of record. 

As early as 1804, United States government officials 
began to evince an interest in this property. In that year 
Governor Harrison bought from the Sacs and Foxes a tract 
of land lying contingent to the mouth of the Fever River 
fifteen miles square. In August, 18 16, a treaty was con- 
cluded with the Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawattomies 
in which a tract five leagues square on the Mississippi, 
the exact limits to be afterwards designated by the 
President, was reserved for the United States, and with- 
held from settlement. For several years following nothing 
official was done, but the tide of American immigration 
became perceptibly stronger. In 18 19 a number of miners 
and traders settled throughout the Fever River district, 
including Jesse W. Shull, Francois Bouthillier, Samuel 
C. Muir, and A. P. Van Metre. These men took Fox 
Indian women for wives, and thus remained unmolested. 
Muir has credit for naming Galena. 

The largest reported discovery of lead ore up to this date 
was made about a mile above the Galena site by Indian 
prospectors. It required the entire force of the band to 
raise the enormous nugget to the surface. Never preserved 
in its entirety, it was disposed of to visiting traders in small 
amounts, so that the true value of the find has never been 
ascertained. Some time either in 18 19 or 1820 there came 
to this region a man destined to exercise much influence 
in its future development. This was Colonel James 
Johnson, of Kentucky, a brother of that Colonel Richard 
M. Johnson, who was reputed to have slain Tecumseh. 



EARLY LEAD-MINERS OF FEVER RIVER 171 

Johnson was a man of brains, energy, and some means. 
The exact date of his first experiment in lead-trading is 
unknown, but a traveller in that country in 1821 speaks of 
meeting his flat-boats on the Mississippi, loaded with ore, 
Johnson at once prepared to take advantage of those rights 
offered under government sanction. Just before the date 
of his arrival Major Thomas Forsyth, on behalf of the gov- 
ernment, had reported the number, situation, and quality 
of all the lead mines lying between Apple Creek and Prairie 
du Chien. This report was of vast assistance to prospectors, 
and, coupled with the Act of Congress in 1807, opened the 
way to extensive operations under form of law. In that 
year the mineral lands had been reserved from sale, while 
it was ordered that leases be granted to individuals for terms 
of either three or five years. Owing to Indian hostility, 
as well as Canadian intrigue, no immediate advantage 
was taken of this Act in the Upper Mississippi region. 
Here the few scattered miners continued to operate inde- 
pendently, and without system. Indeed the first lease in 
the Fever River country was not issued until 1822, fifteen 
years later, to four Kentuckians, and there is no record 
that they ever made any use of it, or even visited Fever 
River. 

But on April 12 of that same year. Colonel Johnson 
secured a three years' lease, and at once began active oper- 
ations. He took with him to the mines, from Southern 
Illinois and Kentucky, a large number of competent work- 
men, besides some negro slaves, and a complete supply of 
requisite tools, for operations on an extensive scale. En- 
camping very close to where Galena now stands, Johnson 
began mining in a way never before attempted in the lead 
country. Several French and Indian settlements were 
close at hand, but his camp being kept under strong military 
protection was not molested. From this moment may 
properly be said to date the real advance of lead-mining in 



172 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

the State, as then it definitely passed from out Indian hands, 
and primitive methods, to more inteUigent guidance, and 
scientific discovery. Colonel Johnson met with almost 
immediate success, and his example w^as follov^ed by others, 
who were thus encouraged to invest capital in the enterprise. 
Yet at first the change in population and output was ex- 
tremely slow. The following year only nine lessees are of 
record, but among them was Dr. Moses Meeker, who es- 
tablished a large colony, and became quite influential in 
mining operations. 

But meantime there flocked into this northern country 
a horde of squatters and prospectors from Missouri, Ken- 
tucky, and Tennessee. These largely arrived by boat via 
the Mississippi, although not a few travelled overland by 
way of Fort Clark, at the Peoria Lake, and thence north 
along an old Indian track, later known as " Kellogg's Trail." 
The old Lewiston trail across Rock County was also ex- 
tensively used during this migration. Few of these arrivals 
possessed any means, and fewer still paid any attention to 
congressional enactments. Nor were they greatly encour- 
aged to do so. The lessees, then operating, received little 
if any support in their rights under the law; protracted 
disputes followed, and much money and time were wasted 
in legal squabbling. As a result unlicensed plants became 
more and more numerous, until the leasing system grew 
so unpopular, and yielded so small a revenue to the govern- 
ment, that in 1846, under another Act of Congress, the 
lands were placed on the open market and sold. 

Here and there throughout the lead country are yet to be 
discovered many interesting details regarding the adven- 
tures of these early pioneers, who won their way through 
personal dangers and financial difiiculties. A report 
issued to Congress in 1826 by Lieutenant Thomas says 
there were in the Fever River diggings the first of July the 
year previous about a hundred persons engaged in mining; 



EARLY LEAD-MINERS OF FEVER RIVER 173 

which number increased to four hundred and fifty-three 
by August, 1826. This refers probably to American miners. 
The heaviest immigration began in 1829, from which time 
we may safely date the modern history of this industry, 
naming all those present previously in that region the real 
pioneers. 



CHAPTER XIII 

OLD-TIME FORTS AND THEIR HISTORIES 

FROM time immemorial to these piping days of peace, 
this country of the Illinois has been dotted with for- 
tifications. The remains of ancient works, undoubtedly 
of this character, are traceable along the valleys of the 
Rock and Illinois Rivers, as well as in the American Bottom, 
some antedating even Indian occupancy. With the earliest 
coming of French explorers the far-reaching plans of La 
Salle began immediately to take practical form in the erec- 
tion of forts, and, in a measure, was continued by his suc- 
cessors. Many of these were but temporary, small affairs, 
mere walls of mud, crowned possibly with log palisades, 
and intended for resting-places on some route of travel 
or for the protection of fur traders. The one at Chicago is 
a fair illustration of the former, that on the present site of 
Waukegan of the latter. Of Chicago we have but a glimpse, 
with the testimony of Tonty, that Oliver Morel, Sieur de La 
Durantaye, commanded there in 1685. The number of his 
garrison is unknown, but it was undoubtedly small. That 
at Waukegan was a fur-trading station built for protection 
against the savages, and was long known as the Little Fort. 
It was established about the year 1720, and remained in 
existence until 1760. An easy portage could be made from 
this point to the Des Plaines, and was probably a well-used 
water route. Other similar French trading-posts — which 
by courtesy were called forts — were erected near the present 
site of Peoria, and on the Mississippi opposite the mouth of 
the Des Moines. Doubtless there were many more, the 
locations of which have not been preserved. 

174 



OLD-TIME FORTS AND THEIR HISTORIES 175 

The earliest true fortress erected within the present 
State boundaries by white men was La Salle's Crevecoeur — 
the " Fort of the Broken Heart " — on the east shore of the 
Illinois, just below Peoria Lake, in the year 1680. It was 
a well-conceived defence as against savages ; its general 
plan is fully described in our chapter devoted to La Salle. 
It was occupied only a few months, being utterly destroyed 
by mutineers during the temporary absence of Tonty, who 
had been left in command. No attempt was ever made at 
rebuilding, and to-day even the exact site remains a matter of 
controversy, but it probably stood on the present site of 
Wesley City, about three miles below Peoria. It consti- 
tuted the fourth in that long chain of fortifications projected 
by La Salle to extend from Montreal to the Gulf, for the 
perpetuation of French power in this vast Western domain. 

The truly important French forts erected within the 
Illinois country were three in number, — St. Louis on Starved 
Rock, Massac on the Ohio River, and Chartres on the 
Mississippi. The latter is said to have been the greatest 
structure of its kind ever built by France on the American 
continent. La Salle and Tonty, assisted by a few Canadian 
voyageurs, and a number of Illinois Indians, began the 
erection of Fort St. Louis in November, 1682. This was 
immediately following their return from the discovery of 
the mouth of the Mississippi River, and the point selected 
was an ideal one. Some few miles below the city of Ottawa, 
but on the opposite side of the Illinois, rises an immense 
cliff, peculiarly conspicuous for its isolation and inaccessi- 
bility. Two years before, it had been selected by La Salle 
for this purpose, and now, having finally decided upon 
establishing a permanent colony of Algonquins upon the 
Utica meadows, he determined to build here a fort for their 
better protection. Let us mark for a moment that com- 
manding eminence of Starved Rock, as it stood then, — 
more than two hundred years ago, — and as it stands to-day. 



176 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

It rises directly from the river, as steep on three sides as a 
castle-wall, to the height of one hundred and twenty-five feet. 
Its beetling front overhangs the stream washing its base, so 
that water could be drawn up by a cord and bucket from 
below, while its western brow looks dizzily down upon the 
tops of vast forest trees beneath. To the east opens a wild 
gorge, or ravine, nearly two hundred feet across, choked with 
foliage, a little brook creeping down through the rocky depths. 
On the other side is a wide valley. This cliff, in those old 
days, was accessible only from behind, where a man might 
toil up, although not without great difficulty, along a steep, 
narrow passage. The circuit of its top measured six hun- 
dred feet. From this summit, once attained, the magnifi- 
cent valley of the Illinois is seen spreading out, as far as the 
vision will extend, in a landscape of exquisite beauty. The 
river beneath sweeps along amid a number of heavily wooded 
islands, while farther away it meanders through vast mead- 
ows, until it disappears like a thread of light in the dim 
distance. 

On this ideal spot, as inaccessible as an eagle's nest, 
these indomitable Frenchmen began the erection of their 
wilderness fort. They cut away the forest crowning the 
summit, utilizing the timber thus obtained for the building 
of storehouses and dwellings for officers and men, including 
a warehouse for peltries, and a chapel. Then, with immense 
labor, logs were dragged up the steep pathway at the rear, 
and the rock completely encircled with a palisade fifteen 
feet high. A parapet covered with earth protected the 
rear, and this was crowned with w^ooden spikes, iron pointed. 
Scarcely was the work completed before a vast Indian village 
began to grow up about it, and the hardy adventurers soon 
looked down upon thousands of black tepees scattered 
far away along the banks of the river. Representatives of 
almost every tribe in that country flocked there, to dwell in 
supposed safety beneath the promised protection of the 



OLD-TIME FORTS AND THEIR HISTORIES 177 

fleur de lis; Fort St. Louis became instantly the Mecca of 
the distressed Algonquins. It is estimated that in less than 
three months fourteen thousand Indians were encamped 
within sound of the morning and evening guns. High 
above, the little garrison of Frenchmen looked over their 
palisades, and felt themselves indeed masters of the wil- 
derness. 

The scope of the work confronting La Salle, and partic- 
ularly his political and financial difficulties in Canada, per- 
mitted his passing but little time in carrying out those 
gigantic plans which he had centred about Fort St. Louis. 
Its command had to be early entrusted to others, Henri de 
Tonty, M. de la Durantaye, M. de Forest, Sieur de Bois- 
rondet, and Bellefontaine. During one entire Winter, Tonty, 
and an officer of dragoons, the Chevalier de Baugy, ruled 
there in unison, the one representing La Salle, the other 
La Barre, the new Canadian governor. When Spring came 
they were obliged to rally their men to a common defence of 
the rock against a sudden attack of the invading Iroquois. 
After six days of fighting, during which several desperate 
attempts were made to storm the defences, the savages were 
obliged to retreat. We know comparatively little of what 
occurred within or without during the existence of this fort, 
or of the personnel of its constantly changing garrison. 
Probably little of soldierly pomp was ever observed, the men 
employed being mostly voyageurs and coureurs de bois, more 
deeply interested in profitable fur trading or adventurous 
exploring than in military exercises. In a letter written by 
La Salle from the Chicago portage June 4, 1683, he states 
that the garrison then consisted of but twenty men, having 
scarcely a hundred pounds of powder, while at another time 
he claims to have accomplished his entire work in the Illinois 
country with the help of only twenty-two Frenchmen. 

From this centre, however, many an exploring expedition 
set forth along the water-ways, or pushed forward into that 



178 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

unknown country away from the familiar water-courses. 
Various tribes were visited in their far-off encampments, 
and a quite profitable fur trade rapidly established, appar- 
ently greatly to the discomfiture of La Salle's enemies in 
Canada, and the envious traders at Mackinac. Numerous 
missionaries, mostly Recollets, though with an occasional 
wandering and inquisitive black robe, made headquarters 
on the rock, roving far among the tribes in their efforts to 
convert the savages. Of the presence of white women at 
Fort St. Louis there is little record, although we know there 
were such, while many members of the garrison found 
sufficient solace among their red neighbors. While often 
obliged to yield command temporarily to others, Henri 
de Tonty remained practically supreme at St. Louis until 
its final abandonment in 1702, when he was ordered to re- 
move to the Mississippi. The old fort was later reoccupied 
by the French, although not in a military way, and as late 
as 1718 a number of fur traders were still making it their 
headquarters. Three years after this date it was again en- 
tirely deserted, and Charlevoix, passing the spot, saw only 
the remains of its fast-decaying palisades. To-day nothing 
remaining there tells the patient, heroic story of that past, 
excepting the same grim rock towering high above the well- 
tilled fields surrounding it. 

Fort de Chartres was for forty-five years the seat of 
French power and authority in the upper Mississippi valley, 
and for the seven years following was a British stronghold. 
Its history from beginning to end is fraught with unique and 
romantic interest. In December, 1718, Lieutenant Pierre 
Dugue de Boisbriant, a Canadian, holding a French army 
commission, accompanied by several officers and a consider- 
able detachment of troops, arrived at Kaskaskia by boat 
from New Orleans. Having selected a fort site eighteen 
miles above, and north of the village, by the end of Spring, 
1720, it was practically completed. This fort stood on the 



OLD-TIME FORTS AND THEIR HISTORIES 179 

alluvial bottom, three-quarters of a mile distant from the 
Mississippi, close by the site of a still older fortification said 
to have been erected by adventurers under Crozat. It w^as 
constructed entirely of wood, and is described as a stockade 
fort, strengthened with earth between the rows of palisades. 
Within the enclosure were the commandant's house, the 
barracks, and a storehouse, all constructed of hewn timber 
and whip-sawed plank. 

A village almost immediately sprang up along the bottom 
land between the fort and the river, settled by French immi- 
grants, and the enterprising Jesuits built the church of St. 
Anne de Fort Chartres. This first Fort Chartres remained 
occupied by different bodies of troops until 1756. During 
these thirty-six years it was the scene of many stirring events, 
of much important history. Here in 1720 came Philippe 
Francois de Renault, as Director-General of Mining Oper- 
ations, bringing with him into this wilderness two hundred 
white miners and five hundred San Domingo negroes, thus 
introducing slavery into the Illinois country. Renault, 
however, succeeded in accomplishing little in the way of 
mineral discovery, except to uncover a few scattered lodes of 
lead ore. He was granted a large tract of land in Monroe 
County, on which he laid out the small village of St. Philippe. 
About the same time Lainglois, a nephew of Boisbriant, 
established the still existing town of Prairie du Rocher. In 
1 72 1, the post was visited by the famous priest. Father 
Xavier de Charlevoix, who was accompanied on his travels 
by an armed escort, and received with a salute of honor. 
In his train was a young Canadian officer, Louis St. Ange 
de Belle Rive, who decided to remain in the country, and 
afterwards twice held command at the fort. He was a typi- 
cal French soldier, gallant and debonair, ever ready either 
for fight or frolic. 

In 1725, owing to Bienville's recall to France, Boisbriant 
became acting Governor of Louisiana, and his former posi- 



i8o HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

tion as Major-Commandant at the Illinois was given over 
to Sieur de Liette, a captain in the royal army. His admin- 
istration was principally notable for trouble with the Fox 
Indians, during which the French settlements were harassed, 
and troops from the fort took part in several skirmishes. In 
1730 Belle Rive succeeded De Liette, holding the position 
for four years, during which little occurred of any military 
or political importance, other than Indian expeditions, 
although Chartres, under his inspiration, became a centre of 
social gayety, the scene of much ceremony and military pomp. 
In 1734 Belle Rive was transferred to Vincennes, while 
Captain Pierre d'Artaguette was given command at Char- 
tres. Almost immediately tragedy took possession of the 
boards. D'Artaguette was ordered, with every soldier who 
could possibly be spared from the garrison, to take part in the 
expedition planned against the Chickasaws in Northern 
Mississippi. In February, 1736, he left Fort Chartres 
accompanied by thirty regulars, one hundred volunteers, and 
two hundred Indians, in a great fleet of bateaux and canoes. 
At the third Chickasaw Bluff, he was joined by the Sieur de 
Vincennes with twenty Frenchmen and one hundred Indians 
from the Wabash. Marching inward, his undisciplined 
command became so impatient for action, that the Indian 
stronghold was attacked before Bienville could arrive with 
additional forces from New Orleans. Although seemingly 
successful at first, the final result was a severe and disastrous 
defeat. D'Artaguette was badly wounded and captured, 
together with De Vincennes, Father Senat, a Jesuit priest 
from the Illinois, and about fifteen other Frenchmen, includ- 
ing young St. Ange. The prisoners were held for some 
time by the Chickasaws in the hope that Bienville would 
offer a satisfactory reward for their release. He failed to 
respond to their messages, and, at last, the hapless victims 
were burned to death by slow fires. The news cast a gloom 
over the entire country of the Illinois, and was never for- 



OLD-TIME FORTS AND THEIR HISTORIES i8i 

gotten by the inhabitants, the name of D'Artaguette re- 
maining a household word among the French for years. 

Alphonse de la Buissouiere was the next commandant 
at Fort Chartres. In 1739 he led a second expedition from 
the Illinois country into the land of the Chickasaws, being 
somewhat more successful in his operations, and escaping 
without serious loss of life. The following year he was 
succeeded in office by Captain Benoist de St. Clair, who 
continued in command of the post for over two years, with 
nothing occurring outside the ordinary routine of garrison 
life, and an occasional grant of land. In 1742, the Marquis 
de Vaudreuil became Governor of Louisiana Province, and 
immediately appointed the Chevalier de Bertel to the com- 
mand of the Illinois. He had a somewhat stormy time of 
it, owing to the early breaking out of war between France 
and England. Many of the old-time Indian allies of the 
French along the border were early won over by British 
agents, and much fear of armed invasion was felt throughout 
the territory. The fort was by this time greatly out of repair, 
was poorly supplied with war material, and its small garrison 
depleted by desertions. De Bertel anxiously urged an in- 
creased efficiency upon his superiors at New Orleans, yet little 
appears to have been done except the enrolment of several 
companies of militia in the surrounding French settlements, 
and a slight increase in the regular garrison. Fortunately 
no British appeared so far in the wilderness, and the fort 
remained unmolested by enemies. In 1749, De Bertel 
relinquished his command, and Captain St. Clair once again 
came into control. He celebrated his return to the post by 
marrying the daughter of a Kaskaskia citizen, and reigned 
until the Summer of 175 1, when he in turn was superseded 
by the Chevalier Macarty, by descent an Irishman, by pro- 
fession a French Major of Engineers. He was accompan- 
ied by nearly a full regiment of grenadiers. During his term 
as commandant the second Fort de Chartres was erected. 



i82 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Of the old fort no relic now remains, nor is it possible to 
determine its exact site. 

This second fort, one of the greatest ever built in America 
up to that date, and the most costly ever erected on this con- 
tinent by France, was constructed according to plans pre- 
pared by an engineer officer, Lieutenant Jean B. Saussier. 
It was begun in 1753, and occupied by troops toward the 
end of the Summer of 1756. The site chosen was about a 
mile above the old fort, and half a mile back from the river. 
The spot selected would seem to have been a strange one 
for so important a structure, being low and exposed to in- 
roads of water, but was apparently in accordance with 
French practice. Here, at the great expense, for those days, 
of one million dollars, was erected a vast fortification. It 
is generally believed that large profits went to the comman- 
dant and others interested in its construction. The fort was 
built of limestone, quarried from the bluffs four miles east, 
where to this day the quarry may be seen, while the finer 
stone with which the gateways and buildings were all faced 
came from beyond the Mississippi. Altogether it covered 
an area of four acres, and was capable of sheltering a garrison 
of three hundred men. The most complete description of 
its interior arrangement is that given by Captain Pitman, 
who visited it ten years after completion, and while it was 
under British control. He wrote as follows: 

" The fort is an irregular quadrangle ; the sides of the exterior 
polygon being four hundred and ninety feet. The walls are two 
feet, two inches thick, and pierced with loopholes at regular inter- 
vals, with two portholes for cannon in the faces, and two in the 
flanks of each bastion. The ditch has never been finished. Within 
the walls is a banquette raised three feet for men to stand on when 
they fire through the loopholes. The buildings within the fort are 
a commandant's house and a commissary's house, the magazine of 
stores, corps de garde^ and two barracks ; these occupy the square. 
Within the gorges of the bastion are a powder magazine, bake- 
house, and prison, on the floor of which are four dungeons." 



OLD-TIME FORTS AND THEIR HISTORIES 183 

As early as Captain Pitman's visit the river current 
had already cut the bank av^ay to within eighty yards of 
the fort. The great freshet of 1772 produced such havoc 
that the west walls and two bastions were precipitated into 
the water. Soon after this the British garrison were obliged 
to desert it entirely, and took up their quarters at Fort Gage 
on the Kaskaskia. Since then it has become a total ruin. 
In 1820 sufficient remained to permit the making of a very 
careful drawing of the original plan. By 1850 a dense forest 
covered the site. To-day the sole existing memorial of the 
old fort is the powder magazine, which remains in a good 
state of preservation, an object picturesque and venerable. 

To resume the story of this fort: in 1760 Macarty gave 
up command to Neyon de Villiers, who commanded the 
French and Indians against Washington in the fight at 
Great Meadows, a large part of his force on that occasion 
coming from Fort Chartres. During his incumbency, 
Pierre Laclede Liguest arrived at Fort Chartres from New 
Orleans, with a great store-boat deeply laden with miscella- 
neous goods. After wintering at the fort, Laclede proceeded 
up the river in February, 1764, and landing on the west 
shore, established St. Louis. In June, 1764, Captain de 
Villiers, becoming impatient over the delay of the British 
to take possession, by terms of the Treaty of Paris signed the 
previous year, finally resigned his position, and retreated 
down the river, accompanied by several officers, a 
company of soldiers, and a number of the French inhabi- 
tants, who were unwilling to remain in the country under 
English rule. The veteran St. Ange de Belle Rive travelled 
from Vincennes and assumed command. With the very 
few soldiers remaining, his task of preserving peace proved 
a difficult one, but was successfully accomplished, and on 
October 10, 1765, he finally surrendered the fort to Cap- 
tain Thomas Stirling, who came from Fort Pitt with one 
hundred Highlanders of the 42nd British Regiment, to take 



i84 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

formal possession. After ninety-two years of French con- 
trol the white banner of France was lowered, and the Red 
Cross of St. George took its place. St. Ange, with his 
little remaining garrison of thirty men, crossed the river 
to St. Louis, where he took service under the King of Spain. 
Captain Stirling remained only until December 4, when 
Major Robert Farmer, with a detachment of the 34th 
British Foot, arrived from Mobile, and assumed command. 
Others followed rapidly until the final abandonment of the 
fort in 1772 — Colonel Edward Cole, Colonel John Reed, 
Lieutenant-Colonel John Wilkins, and Captain Hugh Lord 
each commanding in turn. In the Spring of the last men- 
tioned year, a great freshet tore away the entire river wall, 
the water rising to the height of seven feet inside the fort, 
which was hastily abandoned, the garrison retiring to 
Kaskaskia. 

Thus passed away old Fort Chartres, its memory still 
locally preserved in the name of the river landing and ferry 
near where it once stood. *' It is much to be regretted," 
says a writer well versed in the subject, " that so few of the 
records and official documents of old Fort Chartres have 
been preserved to reveal to us the story of its various occu- 
pants in the daily life, and of the stirring events, and strange 
thrilling scenes that transpired there." 

On the banks of the Ohio, just without the confines of 
the city of Metropolis, are the ruins of Fort Massac, the 
third important French fortification built in the Illinois 
country. Its story, while involving no especial memories 
of bloodshed or of war, is connected with many stirring 
events, and associated with numerous historic names. Tra- 
dition marks the site as having been used by De Soto in 1542, 
and, whether this is true or not, this spot has in turn been 
occupied by Spaniards, French, English, Indians, and 
Americans. The old earthworks, yet partially preserved, 
have a brave tale to tell. Here Juchereau traded, and 



OLD-TIME FORTS AND THEIR HISTORIES 185 

Father Mermet preached; here the southern Indians came 
in their bark canoes to hear the story of the Christ; here 
the French, falling rapidly back in retreat from Fort du 
Quesne, halted, and St. Ange de Belle Rive stopped every 
pursuing expedition down the Wabash and the Ohio. Here 
Tecumseh hunted; here Wilkinson, Sebastian, Pov^ers, 
and others, v^ith Spanish, French, and Creole women as 
companions, plotted to dismember the American Union; 
here Aaron Burr rested, and planned treason, here the beau- 
tiful wife of Blennerhasset first learned of her husband's 
connection with the plot, and here Lieutenant Zebulon Pike 
once held command. 

In August, 1702, M. Juchereau de St. Denis, with thirty- 
three Canadians, and accompanied by Father Jean Mermet 
as chaplain, left Kaskaskia to form a settlement and build 
a fort on the Ohio. His purpose was fur-trading with the 
southern Indians, and his license came directly from Ver- 
sailles. On this site he erected a palisaded cabin or two, 
and a storehouse for his goods. A short distance away, the 
zealous priest built his little mission chapel of logs. This 
latter was called " Assumption," but if Juchereau ever 
named his trading-fort, all record has been lost. In later 
years it was commonly referred to as the " Old Cherokee 
Fort." Two years later the commandant died, and in 1705 
the establishment was completely broken up through diffi- 
culty with surrounding Indians, the French fleeing hastily 
to save their lives, leaving behind all their stores, together 
with thirteen thousand buffalo skins. Tradition has it that 
this small trading-fort was reestablished by adventurers 
in 1 7 10, but remained unimportant until the French and 
Indian War of 1756. 

It was during this latter war that the defeated French 
came floating down the Ohio on their retreat of nearly a 
thousand miles. Reaching the site of Assumption, M. 
Aubry, who was in command, halted and landed his 



1 86 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

troops. Many among them had been previously stationed 
in the lUinois country, and knew it well. This spot was 
one hundred and twenty miles by land from Kaskaskia, 
and but little farther to Fort Chartres. It was four days' 
journey to the mouth of the Illinois. And here they pro- 
posed to stay on guard over the mouth of the Ohio, thirty- 
six miles below. They occupied the old site, throwing up 
earthworks, and erecting over it a stockade with four bastions, 
upon which they mounted eight pieces of cannon. Quarters 
were furnished within for one hundred men. Henceforth, 
in French records, it was known as Fort Massac. 

Four years later, M. de Macarty rebuilt and strongly 
fortified the place. In 1763, by the terms of the Treaty of 
Paris, Massac was surrendered into the hands of the English, 
but the French garrison, although small in numbers, re- 
mained in possession until the Spring of 1765. The English, 
during the thirteen years they held control of the Illinois 
country, never occupied the fort with troops. Had they 
done so, an important chapter of Western history might have 
been differently written, for it was on this unguarded spot 
that the flag of the newly united Colonies was probably first 
unfurled above Illinois territory, and George Rogers Clark 
began his daring march of conquest. 

Indeed, Fort Massac was not again held by troops until 
the United States was threatened with trouble by both Spain 
and France in 1794, when it was hastily rebuilt and occupied, 
under special orders from President Washington. Major 
Thomas Doyle was its first American commander, and it re- 
mained a post of some importance, the scene of many stirring 
events, until after the collapse of the Burr conspiracy. In 
1797, about thirty families were settled in the neighborhood; 
Captain Zebulon Pike was in command, having a garrison 
of eighty-three men. At different times Generals Anthony 
Wayne and James Wilkinson occupied the fort as their 
headquarters. As late as 18 12, it was repaired, being gar- 




SITE OF FORF GAGE, FROM KASKASKIA 




PRESENT ASPECT OF THE EARTHWORKS OF OLD 
FORT GAGE 



OLD-TIME FORTS AND THEIR HISTORIES 187 

risoned at that time by a Tennessee volunteer regiment. 
In 1855 Governor Reynolds visited Fort Massac, and thus 
describes its appearance. The outside walls were one hun- 
dred and thirty-five feet square, and at each angle bastions 
were erected. The walls were palisaded, with earth between 
the wood. A large well was sunk within the fortress, and 
the whole appeared to have been strong and substantial in 
its day. Three or four acres of gravel walks were made on 
the north front of the fort, along which the soldiers paraded. 
These walks were arranged in exact angles, and beautifully 
decorated with pebbles gathered from the river. The site 
was one of the most lovely on La Belle Riviere, commanding 
a charming view. There were remains of the unstoned 
well near the centre. The ditch surrounding the earthworks 
was then some three feet below the surface, while the breast- 
works were raised about two feet above the inner level. 
The gravelled sentry-walk could be plainly traced. To-day 
the site has been transformed into a State park, and the 
Illinois Daughters of the American Revolution are restoring 
the old fort, so far as possible, to its former dimensions and 
form. 

Other forts within the State limits were numerous, but 
not of great historic importance. Fort Dearborn, on the 
site of Chicago, has its tragic story told in another chapter. 
Rebuilt in 18 16, it was garrisoned for about twenty-five years 
by United States troops. Fort Gage, to which the British 
soldiers retired when the crumbling walls of Chartres would 
no longer shelter them, was built on the bank of the Kaskas- 
kia. In shape, it was an oblong parallelogram, 280 by 251 
feet, constructed of large squared timbers, built upon earth- 
work. It was never heavily garrisoned, the occupants in 
1772 consisting of one officer and twenty soldiers. In the 
village of Kaskaskia at this time were two small companies 
of well-disciplined French militia. In 1778, when Clark 
reached Fort Gage, there was not a British soldier on duty, 



1 88 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

and a Frenchman, M. Rocheblave, was in command. Fort 
Clark was erected in 1813 on the present site of Peoria, 
about where the Rock Island depot now stands, and gave 
name to the place for several years. It was a strong palisade 
structure of logs, similar in form to many others, although 
larger and mounting cannon, and was garrisoned by both 
rangers and United States troops, and successfully sustained 
one severe Indian attack. Fort Armstrong was erected 
upon a rocky bluflP at the lower extremity of Rock Island, 
in 1816, and from its situation was a very conspicuous object 
to travellers on the Mississippi. It was garrisoned by United 
States troops, and attained considerable prominence during 
the Black Hawk War, but was never the scene of any historic 
events of importance. 

In 181 1, great numbers of block-house forts were built, 
extending from the Illinois River to the Kaskaskia, thence 
across to about the present town of Equality, following up 
the Ohio and the Wabash, thus protecting nearly all existing 
settlements. Among the more important of these may be 
mentioned, one on the site of Carlyle; one just above 
the town of Aviston, known as Journey's Fort; two 
on the east side of Shoal Creek, called Hill's and Jones's 
Forts; one a few miles southeast of the present town of Leb- 
anon, on the west side of Looking-glass Prairie, known as 
Chambers's Fort ; on the Kaskaskia River were Middleton's 
and Goring's Forts; one on Doza Creek, known as Nat Hill's; 
two in the Jourdan settlement, eastern part of Franklin 
County, on the road to the salt works ; one at the mouth of 
the Illinois River ; while a little later, John Campbell, a 
United States officer, erected a small block-house nineteen 
miles up the Illinois, on its west bank. More pretentious 
military stations were established opposite the mouth of the 
Missouri, and on Silver Creek, near Troy. But the main 
depot was built a mile and a half northwest of the present 
Edwardsville, and called Camp Russell. 



OLD-TIME FORTS AND THEIR HISTORIES 189 

Most of these were very simple, temporary affairs, con- 
sisting of a single house of a story and a half, or occasionally 
two stories, built of logs, with the corners closely trimmed to 
prevent scaling. The walls below were provided with loop- 
holes ; the door was made of thick puncheons, and strongly 
barred on the inside. The upper story usually projected 
over the lower three or four feet, with loopholes through the 
floor. These were merely single-family forts, and were very 
numerous. The stockade forts, garrisoned by rangers, 
consisted of four block-houses, such as described above, or 
larger, placed one at each corner of a square piece of ground, 
of dimensions ample enough to accommodate all the white 
residents of the neighborhood. The intervening space was 
filled in with timbers, or logs, set firmly on end in the ground 
and extending upward twelve to fifteen feet. This formed 
the stockade, and along it upon the inside was a raised 
platform for riflemen to stand upon. Loopholes cut in the 
projecting walls of the corner block-houses commanded the 
entire stockade from without. Within, cabins were erected 
for the settlers, and a well was dug, unless the site selected 
contained a spring. Usually there were two heavy entrances, 
large enough to admit teams, and strongly barred. In times 
of special peril, horses and cattle were driven within the 
enclosure. If the fort stood in the woods, the trees were 
cleared away on every side, so as to give an open firing-space 
for the defence. 

The most notable, as well as the largest, strongest, and 
best equipped of these stockade forts, was Camp Russell, 
established early in 18 12, near Edwardsville, then the extreme 
northern frontier. The old cannon of Louis XIV, which, 
for many years, had done service at Fort Chartres, were 
taken there and mounted on the walls, adding little to the 
defensive strength, but much to military appearance, and 
being especially important on days of festivity, or dress 
parade. This stockade was made the main depot for mili- 



190 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

tary stores, and became a general rendezvous for volunteers, 
rangers, and regulars, while from here departed the various 
expeditions northward into the Indian country. The only 
United States regulars, however, camping here during the 
war were a small company under command of Captain Ram- 
sey. It was here that Governor Edwards established his 
headquarters, and gathered about him the beauty and chiv- 
alry of the Illinois country. Here were much entertaining, 
many brilliant balls and glittering dress parades, for the 
Governor dearly loved display, and presided with courtly 
grace and stately dignity over scenes of frontier merry- 
making and military pomp. 

At various periods in its earlier history, defences were 
erected in the Illinois territory that might be mentioned in 
this connection. During the short-lived Black Hawk War 
numerous temporary forts were built in the northwestern 
portion of the State, and held by parties of volunteers, such 
as Fort Hamilton in Stevenson County, Fort Paine in Du 
Page, Fort Beags in Will, and Gray's Fort in Kane, and 
Apple River Fort in Jo Daviess; but these were of small 
historical interest. Traders also, pushing forward ahead 
of civilization, erected numerous defensive stockades, 
which later became centres of influence, and occasionally 
of military importance. Among these may be mentioned. 
La Sallier's Trading Post on Rock River in Lee County, 
established in 1822, Hubbard's in Iroquois in 1822, and one 
unnamed in northern Knox County, established in 1828. 
Shull had such a trading-fort on the Mississippi near Galena 
as early as 1819. All of these possess local interest, and 
about them doubtless hover stories of adventure in those 
early days of danger worthy of preservation. Illinois has 
been a continuous battle-ground, and every fort evidenced 
a stern advance toward civilization and peace within her 
borders. They were the footprints of her daring pioneers. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE FOOTSTEPS OF GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 

IN June, 1778, the entire country of the lUinois was under 
EngHsh control, as it had practically been since the 
Treaty of Paris, in 1763. But to the eastward the strug- 
gle of the United Colonies for independence had caused the 
steady draining of troops from this far frontier, so that by 
this date not a British regular remained on guard along the 
Mississippi valley. The scattered forts, with their small 
stores of military equipment, were left to the uncertain 
protection of French militia, the depth of whose allegiance 
to England's interests was extremely doubtful. It was the 
time to strike on behalf of the Colonies for all this great ex- 
panse of western territory, and fortunately the leader for 
just such an emergency had discovered means for action. 

George Rogers Clark, born of a good Virginia family, 
was at this time twenty-six years of age. His education was 
fair, but from childhood he had been a restless rover of the 
woods. Six feet in height, stoutly built, with red hair and 
black penetrating eyes, he was courageous to audacity, but of 
quick temper. In many ways Clark early became a marked 
character along the Kentucky frontier — " a land of heroes 
and desperadoes, saints and sinners." He had served in the 
Dunmore war as a boy, and later won rank with Boone, 
Kenton, Logan, and other famous bordermen in Indian fight- 
ing. He had taken part with the revolutionary forces in 
the East, but had early conceived the importance of wresting 
the territory bordering upon the Ohio from British control. 
Presenting this project to Virginia officials, including his per- 
sonal friend, Patrick Henry, and overcoming many obstacles, 

191 



192 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

he at last, heading a little party of determined frontiersmen 
who had volunteered for the desperate service, floated down 
the Ohio, and found landing on Illinois soil just above old 
deserted Fort Massac. Altogether, he had with him for this 
daring enterprise one hundred and fifty-three followers. It 
was a motley gathering. There was no attempt at military 
dress, the officers being in nowise distinguished from the men 
by their apparel. Personal prowess alone determined the 
permanency of command. They were all alike volunteers, 
recruited from along the frontiers of Virginia and Kentucky. 
On their feet were moccasins; the majority wore loose, 
thin trousers of homespun or buckskin, having a fringe of 
leather thongs down the outer seam of each leg; some were 
attired only in leggings of leather, and were otherwise as 
bare of knee and thigh as a Highland clansman. Common 
to all was the fringed buckskin hunting-shirt, a garment hang- 
ing loosely down from neck to knee, and girded about the waist 
by a broad belt, from which was suspended tomahawk and 
scalping-knife. On one hip hung the powder-horn, on the 
other a provision pouch. A home-made hat, or cap of fox 
or squirrel skin, having the tail dangling behind, protected 
the head, while in the hand was held the rudely constructed 
flint-lock rifle, a long clumsy appearing weapon, but deadly 
enough in the hands of such cool, expert marksmen, trained 
to rely upon it in time of need. Of these men Clark held the 
complete confidence, binding them to him by strong personal 
influence, unquestioned daring, and cool self-control. Per- 
haps no other man on the border could at that time have 
governed them as completely as did he. His force at the 
commencement of the expedition was divided into four 
companies, commanded by Captains John Montgomery, 
Joseph Bowman, Leonard Helms, and William Harrod. 
They first stepped on Illinois soil at the mouth of Massac 
Creek, a mile above the old fort, then without occupants, 
June 30, 1778. It is most probable this was the first time 



FOOTSTEPS OF GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 193 

the flag of the United States was ever unrolled so far in the 
West, as there is every reason to believe Clark carried such 
a banner, just adopted, w^ith him on his expedition. 

With no possibility of receiving further reenforcement, 
a thousand miles of trackless wilderness stretching between 
them and their base of supplies, uncertain regarding the 
defences fronting them, these undaunted men of the border 
determined on pushing boldly forward across unknown 
country, trusting to make surprise accomplish the work of 
numbers. Meeting by chance, when but a few miles from 
the river, a small party of Kentucky hunters, the latter were 
easily induced to act as guides for their countrymen, and 
with one John Saunders in advance, the little army set forth 
on its daring and toilsome march. It was one hundred and 
twenty miles as the crow flies, from Massac to Kaskaskia. 
The country to be traversed was marked by no signs of guid- 
ance save a few dim, winding Indian trails, while the route 
selected led through swamps, amid the low mountains of the 
Ozarks, and across level plains beyond. Their success 
depended altogether upon swiftness and secrecy ; but on 
the third day of travel, while within the present limits of 
Williamson County, the bewildered guide lost his way. 
Much confusion resulted, the exasperated bordermen threat- 
ening him with death, but fortunately in time to save 
himself from such fate, Saunders recognized a distant 
point of timber, and from there led directly forward to 
Kaskaskia. 

On the afternoon of July 4, with their garments worn and 
soiled, and their cheeks covered by beards of three weeks* 
growth, the invaders cautiously stole down into the Kaskaskia 
River valley, and concealed themselves along the east bank, 
in a thick wood, to wait for the coming of night. They were 
at this time about three miles above the town, which was 
situated on the opposite shore. Reconnoitring parties 
were cautiously despatched, through the early dusk, who 



194 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

learned something regarding the situation in the village, and 
fortunately secured sufficient boats with which to transport 
the command across the stream. Clark's plan of attack was 
extremely daring and simple. His small force was divided 
into three parties consisting of about fifty men each. Two of 
these were directed to cross the river and take position oppo- 
site different portions of the town, moving forward as silently 
as possible through the darkness, guarding against discovery. 
The third, under his own immediate command, was to ad- 
vance directly down the east bank, climb the steep bluff, 
and dash in upon Fort Gage. He was to make the first 
attack ; the others being expected to await his signal of 
success before charging the town. 

Lovers of romance have woven many an interesting 
legend about the stirring events of that dark night, most of 
them melodramatic and improbable. 

'' We have been told," writes Dr. Thwaites, in his exhaustive 
essay, " that, as Clark and his men lay there by the postern 
gate, they could hear the sounds of French fiddles squeaking a 
quadrille, and now and then gay shouts of laughter. The officers 
of the post were, it is related, giving a ball to the inhabitants 
in the large assembly room with its puncheon floor. The out- 
lying houses were deserted. Men and women, villagers and 
garrison, Indians and coureurs de bois, were, without regard to rank 
or race, crowded into the hall, heeding nothing save the dance. 
Even the sentinels had deserted their posts to join in the festivities, 
and Kaskaskia, a victim to the irrepressible gayety of the French, 
was unguarded. Leaving his men at the gate, says the story- 
teller, Clark, alone with his guide, strode across the parade, and 
leaning against the doorpost, with folded arms, watched the gay 
scene — a patch of light and color in the heart of the gloomy 
wilderness. As he calmly stood there, an unbidden guest, an 
Indian, lying curled in his blanket on the entry floor, started and 
gazed intently upon him. Another moment, the savage sprang to 
his feet and sounded the war-whoop. In the midst of the general 
consternation, Rocheblave, and his brother officers, hurried to the 



FOOTSTEPS OF GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 195 

door, but Clark, unmoved, bade them go on with the dance, but be 
pleased to remember that they were now holding revelry under the 
banner of Virginia, and not that of Great Britain." 

The truth, while smacking less of romance, is scarcely 
less stirring, w^hen w^e consider the isolation of these gallant 
men, and their utter uncertainty regarding the force opposing 
them. Clark's immediate party, which numbered scarcely 
more than a dozen, lay, during the early evening, under the 
river bank, where they were barked at by dogs. The scouts 
pressing up the steep hill and finding the fort gate open, 
those behind pushed on through the darkness to Roche- 
blave's house, and succeeded in capturing that surprised 
commandant in an upper room. Hauling him downstairs, 
they gave the signal for general attack. Yelling like mad, 
the united bordermen surged through the fort, in which 
they found not a single soldier to oppose them, and up and 
down the streets of startled Kaskaskia, and within fifteen 
minutes were in full possession without the necessity of 
firing a gun. Armed with the knowledge — which had 
just reached this country before he left the East — that 
France was already in open allegiance with the American 
Colonies, Clark made judicious use of this important fact 
to win to himself the confidence of the French inhabitants. 
His moderation and kindness toward them also tended to 
immediately restore quietness. Their spirits rose when 
they learned that instead of being made slaves by these 
bloodthirsty Virginians, the " long knives " they had been 
taught so long to fear, they were, upon taking an oath of 
allegiance to the Republic, to be allowed to go at their pleas- 
ure, and meet in their little church as of old. All the Creoles, 
Clark reported, took the oath of loyalty, as thus prescribed, 
but Commandant Rocheblave had been exceedingly violent 
and insulting in language, and for punishment was sent to 
Virginia as a prisoner, and his slaves sold, the money thus 
obtained being divided among his riflemen. 



196 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

A small party, accompanied by a few eager French vol- 
unteers under command of Captain Bowman, promptly 
took possession of Cahokia, sixty miles north, making the 
trip on horseback. Meanwhile Father Pierre Gibault, the 
Kaskaskia priest, now thoroughly devoted to American in- 
terests, was despatched overland to Vincennes, to learn some- 
thing of the situation at that post, and returning about August, 
reported to Clark that through his influence the American 
flag had been hoisted above that fort, the small squad of 
British soldiers in possession deeming it safer to withdraw 
before the threatened uprising of the French inhabitants, 
and fearing the approach of Clark and his " long knives." 
Captain Helm was at once sent to this post to assume com- 
mand of the French militia, taking with him as companion 
a single American by the name of Henry. 

Successful as Clark had thus far been in carrying out 
all his plans, he was still in a most perilous position. His 
little band stood utterly alone in the heart of an immense 
wilderness. French loyalty to the new Republic was at best 
doubtful, while the surrounding Indian tribes were restless, 
and easily swayed by either British or French adventurers. 
West of the Mississippi, the Spanish influence prevailed, 
and must be kept friendly to insure his future safety and 
success. His force was far too insignificant for any serious 
thought of armed conquest, or to enable him to carry out 
his original project of a quick military advance against the 
important British post at Detroit, yet while that remained 
in English hands, all he had yet accomplished was in peril. 
Fortunately in this emergency Clark proved himself diplo- 
mat as well as soldier, winning the interest of the Spanish 
officials, the friendship of surrounding Indian tribes, and 
cementing more firmly the confidence of the French inhab- 
itants to his cause. So passed the busy days of that Summer 
and Fall, the American commander strengthening his posi- 
tion in every possible way, while despatching urgent mes- 



FOOTSTEPS OF GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 197 

sages eastward begging for reenforcements to aid him in 
carrying forward his further plans of conquest. 

Meanwhile, General Hamilton, the British commander 
at Detroit, was far from being idle. Seeking for allies among 
those Indian tribes already pledged to the English service, 
he gathered together a formidable war party for the purpose 
of re-garrisoning Vincennes, and for the reestablishment of 
British influence throughout the Illinois country. By the 
seventh of October he had departed in person for the scene 
of action, accompanied by one hundred and seventy-seven 
whites, largely Creole volunteers, and about three hundred 
Indians, of various tribes. Because of storms and icy streams 
they were seventy-one days in reaching Vincennes. Here 
Captain Helm and his single American soldier attempted 
resistance, but on the prompt desertion of the French militia 
finally surrendered after obtaining " all the honors of war." 

The news of this easy recapture of Fort Sackville, and 
the town of Vincennes, which it commanded by its guns, 
did not reach Clark on the distant Kaskaskia until fully a 
month later. The entire Illinois country was soon plunged 
into wild alarm by the persistently circulated rumors of 
British advance, aggravated by raiding parties of Indians, 
incited by Hamilton. Clark's personality alone sufficed 
to hold his motley following firm, and gradually confidence 
was restored to the excitable French, while he waited with 
what patience he could command for more definite infor- 
mation regarding the exact situation on the distant banks 
of the Wabash. This did not reach him until the evening 
of January 29, when Colonel Francis Vigo, a Spanish mer- 
chant, just arrived from Vincennes, furnished him with 
complete details as to Hamilton's force and plans, informing 
him that all but about eighty of the British force, with one 
hundred Indians, had returned to Detroit, while the com- 
mander was busily planning a campaign for the coming 
Spring. 



1 98 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Above all else, Clark was a man of action, and in this 
emergency realized at once that any further hesitation meant 
defeat. Desperate as the venture then appeared, he decided 
to attack the British at once, rather than await any invasion 
on their part. Hastily he had a large bateau, which was 
named " The Willing," constructed, armed it with two 
four-pounders, and four large swivel guns, manned it 
with a crew of forty volunteers, largely French Creoles, 
under Lieutenant Rogers, and on the evening of February 
4 despatched this rude vessel down the Mississippi with 
orders to patrol the Ohio and ascend the Wabash as far 
as possible, so as to cooperate with his land force. Then he 
turned energetically to the organization of this overland 
expedition. Persuaded by the enthusiastic Creole girls, 
the principal young men of the section flocked to the call of 
the tall Virginian. On the very day following the departure 
of *' The Willing " southward, he marched out of wildly 
cheering Kaskaskia, at the head of his little volunteer army 
of one hundred and seventy bold fellows, both American 
and French, their flags fluttering, and their drums beating 
merrily. 

Scarcely in the pages of manly endeavor will be found 
any record of a more truly desperate venture than this mid- 
winter march across the untracked wilderness to battle 
against overwhelming odds. The distance to be covered 
by these invaders was some two hundred and thirty miles, 
across a little-known country beautified by alternating lakes, 
rivers, groves, and prairies. In Summertime it would have 
been a continuous scene of beauty and peace, while in the 
cold of Winter the frozen plains and ice-bridged streams 
would have offered comparatively easy travelling. But 
this was February; the temperature was that of early Spring, 
and great freshets sweeping down the broad valleys had 
completely inundated all the lowland. The ground under 
foot became more sodden as they advanced; progress was 




GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 



FROM A COPY BY EDWARDS OF JARVIS S PORTRAIT ; THE COPY BEING 
h\ POSSESSION OF THE WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



FOOTSTEPS OF GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 199 

necessarily slow; hardships increased. The little band were 
without tents or protection of any kind, the floods had 
driven away the expected game from along the route of 
march, and Clark and his officers were soon at their wits' 
end to devise methods for keeping up the flagging spirits 
of their wearied, hungry men. The first week passed amid 
constantly increasing toil and exposure. At the end of it, 
they arrived at the " drowned lands " of the Wabash, a 
broad stretch of low, level country, lying entirely submerged, 
and extending almost the entire distance from the valley of 
the Little Wabash to Vincennes. The opposite banks of 
this stream were five miles apart, with water sweeping tu- 
multuously down, and in no place less than three feet deep. 
Here, drenched by the constant rain, hungry, and becoming 
somewhat disheartened before such obstacles, these men, 
encouraged by their leaders, managed to construct a rude 
raft, or flat-boat, and ferried their baggage across to the 
opposite shore, which was distinguished merely by a fringe 
of trees. The stronger among them waded and swam across, 
aided by the few horses in the party. Occasionally sinking 
in the mud and water as high as their shoulders, the toiling 
soldiers were cheered to new exertions by every device 
which the officers could conjure up. An Irish drummer, 
of exceedingly small stature, but with rare talent as a 
singer of comic songs, was hoisted on the head of the tallest 
man in the company, and thus led the way, stirring those 
behind with his wit and music. 

Almost worn out by fatigue, hunger, and exposure, the 
heroic, struggling band attained to the banks of the Embarras 
River on the twelfth day out from Kaskaskia. They were 
now so close to Vincennes that they dare not discharge their 
guns for fear of alarming the unsuspecting garrison, whom 
they yet hoped to surprise. The Embarras was a raging 
flood, utterly impassable. The very best they could do 
was to find a small swampy hillock in the midst of the 



200 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

tumultuous waters. Here amid a constant drizzle soaking 
them to the skin, they huddled closely together for the night 
shivering from cold, and having neither food nor fire with 
which to warm themselves. The next morning they were 
aroused from their discomfort by the sound of the sunrise 
gun at Vincennes, then scarcely nine miles away. But it 
boomed to their ears across a wide and desolate waste of 
waters. The dismal surroundings, coupled with ever in- 
creasing hardship and danger, greatly depressed the French 
volunteers, but the Americans remained undaunted. They 
remained in camp that day, but despatched a detail on a 
rudely constructed raft, in an endeavor to either steal boats 
from near the town, or open communication with their own 
bateau. Two days later, these returned unsuccessful in 
their endeavors. As Captain Bowman wrote, " There was 
not one foot of dry land to be found. No provisions of any 
sort now for two days." On February 20, a boat was 
brought in containing five Frenchmen belonging to Vin- 
cennes. These villagers reported to Clark, greatly to his 
encouragement, that Hamilton and his men had no suspicion 
of any attack being threatened, and that the native inhab- 
itants of Vincennes were all well-disposed toward the Amer- 
ican cause. 

The twenty-first it rained violently all day, but the des- 
perate invaders felt that they could remain quiet no longer. 
Every moment of delay increased the peril of discovery. 
Facing the steady downpour at daybreak, the little band 
was safely ferried on rude rafts, aided by a few canoes, across 
the raging waters to the eastern side of the Wabash on which 
lay Vincennes. There was no river bank to be found in all 
that desolation of down-pouring flood, and their slow advance 
was made in the face of imminent peril. All around them 
extended a vast swamp, without a spot of dry land appear- 
ing for leagues above its surface. The icy water oftentimes 
rose to the chins of the struggling soldiers, yet they pushed 



FOOTSTEPS OF GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 201 

resolutely forward, the stronger wading, their rifles held 
high above their heads, while the weaker and more famished 
were borne in the few canoes. No nobler incident of heroic 
toil and self-sacrifice is recorded in American history. With 
infinite labor and suffering scarcely three miles of that awful 
journey toward battle had been completed when darkness 
again overtook them, and they were obliged to seek refuge 
for another night. Fortunately at that critical moment a 
little boggy island was discovered lifting its water-soaked 
surface above the stream, and there, for their seventh night 
of suffering and exposure, within sound of the evening and 
morning guns of the fort, those men of iron slept, hungry, 
and in clothes sopping wet. 

They awoke once more with the dawn to confront the 
same deadly prospect. Without food to afford strength for 
the undertaking, the gallant fellows plunged into the freezing 
flood, moving forward in Indian file, the strongest man of 
each company leading the way. Occasionally some brave 
heart would start a song, which others would take up in the 
straggling column behind, and thus all through those hours 
of misery they stumbled blindly on, determined still to find 
and grapple with the enemy. That night they were within 
six miles of Vincennes, their camping-spot a maple grove on 
a hillock. It was bitterly cold ; when the reluctant morning 
dawned, ice half an inch thick covered the smooth water, 
while the sodden clothing of the men was frozen stiff. But the 
sun breaking through the lowering clouds promised a bright 
day, and brought with it renewed courage. Clark, facing 
his famishing, half-frozen men, pledged his word that the 
next night should find them within striking distance of the 
foe, and then, dashing into the water at the head of the col- 
umn, sternly ordered his oflficers to close up the rear, and 
shoot down any man who refused to follow him. 

The road forward grew constantly more difficult, while the 
increasing weakness of the men made the advance desperately 



202 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

slow. The lowland, now known as Horseshoe Plain, across 
which they struggled, had been transformed by the constant 
downpour of weeks into a shallow lake fully four miles 
wide. Not the slightest point of land uplifted above the 
water, but far away a distant fringe of woods fortunately hid 
their movements from sight of both the town and the fort. 
Near the centre of this lake, the prolonged hardships of that 
toilsome struggle began to tell most seriously. Man after 
man fell in the ranks exhausted, and the few canoes they 
possessed were paddled frantically back and forth in an en- 
deavor to save the poor fellows from drowning. Soldier 
clung to soldier in support, staggering forward scarcely able 
to keep his feet, while the lion-hearted Clark urged, com- 
manded, implored them to renewed exertion. The water 
deepened until it reached the shoulders of the tallest, and 
when finally the despairing, suffering column attained to 
the edge of an island grove, the men flung themselves sobbing 
on the sodden ground, so thoroughly exhausted that to rally 
them was almost impossible. But in this moment of utter 
despair, a little ray of hope came as encouragement. From 
a party of Indian women who chanced to pass in a canoe, 
some food was obtained. Fires were lighted, the weakest 
given broth, and thus all were inspired to renewed determi- 
nation. 

But at the best it would be hard to conceive of a situation 
more utterly desperate, more apparently hopeless. The 
merest handful of weakened, famished men, fronting an un- 
known but superior force, pressing sternly on to attack a 
strongly garrisoned fort in the very heart of the enemy's 
country, without a single piece of artillery, their scanty rifle 
ammunition wet and useless, — it was a scene of fact stranger 
than any fiction ever penned. From where they now rested, 
breathless and shivering from cold, they could distinguish, 
only two miles away, through scattered woods, and across 
yet another wide lake, the distant log houses of the little town. 



FOOTSTEPS OF GEORGE ROGERS CLJRK 203 

A scouting party brought in a Creole who was discovered 
hunting ducks in the swamp, and he furnished them with 
both food and bad news. Hamilton and his British garri- 
son were still unconscious of their approach, but two hundred 
additional Indian allies had just arrived at Fort Sackville. 
Those staggering, almost unarmed, bordermen realized now 
that immediately before them, entrenched, provisioned, 
thoroughly equipped with small arms and cannon, there 
awaited a force — British, French, and Indian — fully four 
times their own. It was a moment when any but the most 
heroic souls would have quailed in utter despair. But Clark 
was emphatically the man for such an emergency, and at 
his back that day were the men of iron to support him in 
desperate deed. His simple plan was that of audacity and 
daring, the usual strategy of the border. Despatching the 
captured Creole directly to his own people of the town bear- 
ing a letter, requesting their secrecy and assistance, he pre- 
pared at once to impress them with his power and ability to 
make good his threats of vengeance if they failed him. His 
camp, while in plain view from the village, was luckily con- 
cealed from the fort. Taking advantage of the peculiar lay 
of the land between, Clark marched his little band of men 
back and forth just within the edge of a wood, every 
banner unfurled to the breeze, every rifle shining in the 
light, thus deceiving the watchers into the belief that he 
had behind him a thousand armed followers. Such an 
exhibition of military strength, coupled with Clark's repu- 
tation for daring along that frontier, and the mystery of 
his sudden appearance from out the waste of those sur- 
rounding waters, completely overawed the French popula- 
tion, and not one among them even dared to steal away to 
the unsuspecting British fort and warn the garrison of the 
danger threatening. 

At sundown, Clark divided his party, now eager for battle, 
into two small bands. Of one he assumed personal com- 



204 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

mand ; the other was entrusted to Captain Bowman. At 
seven o'clock the latter pushed silently forward and sur- 
rounded the town, while the former hurried directly through 
the village toward the unsuspecting fort. The excited in- 
habitants greeted the advancing column with cheers as it 
swung rapidly along the single street of the village, and 
handed out to the men hidden stores of much-needed ammu- 
nition. The surprise of the fort was complete. Hamilton 
believed the first stray shots heard were fired by drunken 
Indians, nor did he fully awaken from confidence until, in 
the brilliant moonlight, his oflficers discovered that the stock- 
ade was already completely surrounded by American border- 
men. There was no hesitancy in the swift and deadly 
attack. Those gallant fellows had not marched and hun- 
gered all those long leagues to play at war, and they realized 
fully the vast odds opposing them. The palisaded fort was 
a strong frontier defence, having large block-houses at the 
angles, the second floors towering eleven feet above the 
ground, and each containing both cannon and swivel guns. 
Clark possessed not a single piece of artillery, but he had 
with him the most expert riflemen of the border. Sheltered 
behind houses, palings, and ditches, as coolly as though they 
were hunting game in the backwoods, these men poured such 
a constant, deadly fire through the narrow loop-holes of the 
fort as to utterly silence the British guns. Not a gunner 
dared remain at his piece, and before sunrise it became 
plainly evident that the garrison was already seriously 
crippled, although the return fire of small arms continued 
briskly. 

At nine o'clock that morning the Americans paused in 
their attack just long enough to eat breakfast, that being the 
first regular meal they had enjoyed in six days. Clark, 
taking advantage of the pause, sent in to Hamilton an invi- 
tation to surrender, but that oflRcer refusing, the firing was 
at once hotly resumed. Soon after this parley occurred, 



FOOTSTEPS OF GEORGE ROGERS CLJRK 205 

a party of French and Indian scouts, not understanding the 
situation, burst into the town. They were loaded down 
with scalps and provisions from a recent raid upon American 
settlements. Instantly the enraged borderers burst from 
their coverts and charged them, killing two and wounding 
most of the others. Six were captured, deliberately toma- 
hawked in sight of the horrified garrison, and their bodies 
thrown into the river. Whether justified by circumstances 
or not, this act overawed the surrounding savages, and 
struck terror among the French volunteers within the fort, 
many of whom refused to fight longer. For two hours the 
fighting continued unchecked, the firing from the concealed 
American riflemen proving constant and deadly. A number 
of men in the fort were struck by shots entering through the 
narrow loopholes, and finally, in despair of any relief from 
without, Hamilton sent forth a white flag, requesting a three 
days' truce, for the purpose of arranging satisfactory terms 
of surrender. To this Clark responded in the following 
note, thoroughly characteristic of the man and the times : 

" Colonel Clark's Compliments to Mr. Hamilton and begs leave 
to inform him that Colonel Clark will not agree to any Other Terms 
than that of Mr. Hamilton's Surrendering himself and Garrison, 
Prisoners at Discretion. 

" If Mr. Hamilton is Desirous of a Conference with Colonel 
Clark he will meet him at the Church with Captain Helm. 

"February 24th, 1779. G. R. Clark." 

Finding no escape possible, Hamilton agreed to this 
conference, where he sought in vain to have the terms of 
capitulation modified. At last articles of agreement were 
signed, and the time set for the formal surrender of the fort 
to the Americans. At the appointed hour, on the morning 
of the twenty-fifth, Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton, with his 
garrison of eighty men, marched forth from the stockade, past 
Bowman's and Mac Carry's companies, the latter entirely 
Creole volunteers, while the Americans under Captains 



2o6 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Williams and Worthington entered the fort, relieved the 
sentries, and hoisted the American flag above the palisade. 
Thirteen guns were fired as a national salute, during 
w^hich an accident occurred, greatly marring the deep joy 
of victory. By a premature explosion of cartridges, Bow^- 
man, Worthington, and four privates were severely burned. 
The captured fort was promptly re-christened " Patrick 
Henry." 

It is almost impossible in words to express fitly the im- 
portance of this achievement. In many respects it stands 
unique and alone among the daring deeds of war. Clark, 
in the midst of Winter, isolated amid the w^ilderness, fronting 
an unknown but largely outnumbering enemy, had con- 
ducted a forced march of two hundred and thirty miles, 
through leagues of icy water, often rising to the shoulders 
of his struggling men. With only a small party of ragged, 
famished, half-disciplined militiamen, a large proportion 
Creole, he had boldly advanced into the very heart of a 
strange and hostile country, and, without the aid of artillery, 
had captured a strong stockade fort, containing cannon 
and swivels, and manned by a trained garrison, largely out- 
numbering his command. The conception and execution 
were alike heroic, and, with all honor to those gallant men 
who so boldly followed him, the meed of praise belongs for 
ever to George Rogers Clark. And the result was well 
worthy the action, for by this means the great Northwest 
was won to the United States. 



CHAPTER XV 

PIONEER LIFE AND ADVENTURE ALONG THE 
ILLINOIS BORDER, 1782-1812 

IT was these romantic exploits, performed by General 
Clark and his frontier followers in the years 1 778-1 779, 
which made known the fertile Illinois country to Eastern 
bordermen. The result was an almost immediate emigra- 
tion to the banks of the Mississippi and the Wabash. Among 
these earlier arrivals not a few of Clark's soldiers returned, 
and settled upon lands which had been allotted them as 
a reward for army service. By nature adventurous, and of 
a fearless spirit, cut off by a widely unsettled region from 
any civilization, and completely surrounded by savage tribes, 
it is surprising that these earlier settlers escaped with so little 
trouble. Fighting there was in plenty, and Indian massacre, 
yet no such continuous bloody incidents as mark the pioneer 
history of Kentucky and Ohio are to be found in the early 
annals of Illinois. Nevertheless, these first adventurous 
settlers, who invariably founded their primitive log homes 
along the banks of streams and within the shadow of the 
woods, fearful lest the temptingly open prairie land should 
prove unproductive, were never left for long undisturbed 
by their troublesome red neighbors. They held to their 
exposed positions for many years through constant vigilance, 
and the readiness of their deadly rifles. 

Of all the Illinois Indians, the Kickapoos proved them- 
selves during this period the most formidable and dangerous. 
Since 1763, when they were forced southward from about 
the great lake where they had formerly ruled supreme, this 

tribe had occupied a portion of the territory lying along the 

207 



2o8 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Mackinaw and Sangamon Rivers, having their principal 
villages on Kickapoo Creek, and at Elkhart Grove. For 
some reason their intense hatred of the inflowing American 
settlers was implacable, and they were ever the first among 
Illinois tribes to commence hostilities, the last to submit 
and enter into treaties with the whites. During the ten 
years extending from 1786 to 1796 this tribe alone, recruited 
possibly by young and adventurous warriors from other 
near-by villages, kept the isolated white settlements in a 
continual state of alarm. For protection, the hardy border- 
men of that day had no power to look to but themselves. 
Laboring in the corn-field or the forest, they never laid aside 
the trusty rifle, while oftentimes at night the tired worker 
was compelled to stand guard about his own home. It was 
a time of continual alarm, of ever-haunting peril, and no 
family enjoyed for a moment the feeling of perfect security. 

The earlier of these white settlers to arrive drifted in 
naturally from the south, arriving on flat-boats, or huge 
family arks, like floating forts, by way of the Ohio and the 
Wabash, and later advanced gradually farther into the 
interior, attracted by the fertile lands discovered during their 
hunting expeditions along the smaller streams. These 
pioneers were mostly from Kentucky, Virginia, and Penn- 
sylvania, of the rough, adventurous border type, largely 
incapable of enjoying life unspiced by danger, while among 
them were to be found a few, oftentimes of more sober and 
settled purpose, claiming birthplace in far-ofF New England, 
or New York. Vigorous and athletic, accustomed to all 
the privations and hardships of the open, these pioneer back- 
woodsmen of Illinois were remarkable for their physical 
strength and courage, which was naturally increased by 
their continual struggle against a savage, skulking foe. 
Under such conditions as confronted these men, the weak- 
ling could not long survive. 

They early adopted a costume not unlike that worn by 



PIONEER LIFE AND ADVENTURE 209 

the Indians surrounding them, a fur cap, or rude home- 
made hat of leather, buckskin leggings, together with a loose 
hunting-shirt, within the capacious bosom of which they 
could conveniently store away jerked beef and bread or 
almost any other of the necessities requiring transporta- 
tion upon the trail. About the waist was worn a belt, to 
which were attached knife and tomahawk. Moccasins 
were worn upon the feet, and the necessary rifle seldom failed 
to adorn the shoulder. The universal habitation was a log 
hut, generally set in a little clearing, and containing but a 
single room, to be increased in size as the need arose or 
prospects brightened. Not infrequently this would be 
surrounded by palisades of sharpened logs set firmly in the 
ground, and projecting upward fifteen feet or more, as a 
further protection against their Indian foes, and, whenever 
possible, these scattered cabins were erected in close prox- 
imity to some strong central block-house, to which the har- 
assed occupants might retreat in times of grave emergency, or 
where they could leave their women and little ones in safety 
while the fathers tilled the fields. 

Considering the difficulties to be overcome, immigration 
mto this new land was rapid. The distance from the nearest 
Eastern settlements was considerable, yet three hundred 
family boats were reported to have arrived at the falls of the 
Ohio in the Spring of 1780 alone. The larger number of 
these, however, were destined for Kentucky. Among the 
immigrants to Illinois whose names have since become fa- 
miliar in State history, may be mentioned James Moore, 
Shadrach Bond, James Garrison, Robert Kidd, and Larkin 
Rutherford. Accompanied by their families these made 
the perilous journey across the Alleghanies, on foot and by 
wagon down the Ohio and up the Mississippi by flat-boat, 
until they finally landed at Kaskaskia. Of these Moore, 
who was the leader of the party, with a few others, soon 
located on the hills near Bellefontaine, while Bond and the 



210 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

remainder settled in the American Bottom close by Harrison- 
ville, near what was afterwards known as the block-house 
fort. It was this early settlement which gave to this region 
its peculiar name. James Piggot, John Doyle, Robert 
Whitehead, and a Mr. Bowen arrived shortly afterwards, 
and settled permanently within the State. These are be- 
lieved to compose the list of the earliest American settlers, 
although it is quite probable others went in fully as early 
by way of the Wabash, and it is not impossible that there 
were arrivals even in this neighborhood, overlooked by the 
historians of those days. Among those mentioned, Doyle 
taught school, and was, perhaps, the first professional teacher 
in Illinois. Speaking French and Indian, he became very 
useful as an interpreter. Not until 1785 was this little band 
of pioneers reenforced by new arrivals. Then came Joseph 
Ogle, Joseph Warley, and James Andrews, all from Virginia, 
and each having a large family accompanying him. The 
following year witnessed the arrival in the country of James 
Leman, George Atcherson, and David Waddell, with their 
families, in huge arks hauled laboriously up the river, be- 
sides several others whose names have not been preserved. 
It is extremely difficult to picture in the mind the lonely 
isolation, oftentimes the seemingly desperate surroundings, 
of these first American invaders of the Illinois wilderness. 
About them stretched the primitive forests, the virgin prairie, 
dominated over by the jealous Indian, and inhabited by all 
manner of wild beasts. Roads were unknown, trails merely 
those used by the savages, the streams alone forming means 
of communication between the widely scattered settlements. 
These latter were even more thoroughly separated by reason 
of the rough, mountainous nature of that southern portion of 
the State, where these earlier settlers found homes. We can 
bring the picture before the mind — a small French village 
or two along the Mississippi, with a few more, mere huddled 
groups of huts, upon the distant banks of the Illinois. 



PIONEER LIFE AND ADVENTURE 211 

Farther south, scarcely as yet venturing to push forth from 
the protecting shadows of the Ozarks, the Americans had 
cleared a few patches in the dense forests, and erected their 
block-houses at the confluence of convenient streams. 
Adventurous hunters wandered back and forth, keeping up 
some measure of communication between these settlements, 
but forest, plain, and river were all Indian-haunted, and 
there was no trade, no social intercourse. Each little body 
of pioneers lived alone, the merest pin-prick in that deso- 
late wilderness which they had come to conquer. 

Their surroundings were primitive, their wants extremely 
few. Following the first year or two of struggle, during 
which they frequently felt dire want, on their rude tables 
might be found johnny-cake, or journey cake, made of 
coarse corn-meal, hominy, or pounded maize, thoroughly 
boiled, with other savory preparations of flour and milk, in 
addition to a rich variety of game afforded by the chase. 
In season, the forests and the banks of streams offered much 
in wild fruit, while bee-trees, with their welcome sweets, were 
not uncommon. Their furniture was ever of the roughest 
description, being usually hewn out with the axe, and fash- 
ioned with a knife. Most articles in common use were 
altogether of domestic manufacture, although a few opulent 
families transported treasures from the East. The table 
utensils were largely of wood, those of metal being extremely 
rare, if not entirely unknown to the earliest comers. Bedding 
consisted of the skins of bear, deer, or buffalo. Stoves were 
not thought of, and the huge fire-places, rudely constructed 
of stones, plastered with clay, piled high with blazing 
logs, were favorite haunts on those long Winter evenings, 
when the storm howled without, and the forest trees over- 
head swayed to the blast. It was a rough, hard life, a 
life of toil, exposure, privation, and continuous danger. The 
nearest neighbor was usually miles away, the trail toward 
his dwelling the merest dim foot-track through forest and 



212 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

across prairie. Opportunities for the education of children 
were extremely scanty, even as regards the rudiments. If 
by any chance the mother could read, while the father was 
at work in the partially cleared field, his rifle slung to his 
back, she would barricade the door against prowling savages, 
gather the little ones about her, and teach them as best she 
could from out the treasures of her own memory. 

During this entire period — that is, from 1786 to 1796 — 
these small, scattered settlements were nominally under the 
jurisdiction of the Northwestern Territory. Not until the 
organization of the county of St. Clair by Governor St. Clair 
in 1 790, was there any adequate administration of law, indeed, 
no pretence at such administration. No courts were in exist- 
ence, and no civil government worth mentioning. The 
people were a law unto themselves ; their manners were 
rude, but their morals were simple and pure ; the grosser 
vices being exceedingly uncommon. Uncouth as they were 
in language, dress, and action, crime of any kind was most 
infrequent. They were proverbial for hospitality and kind- 
ness to strangers ; with no tavern in the whole country, every 
home was wide open, every passing traveller welcome to the 
best they had to offer, which was, indeed, scanty enough. 
Among the earlier families of distinction as pioneers there 
was a record of unblemished morality and rectitude of con- 
duct. Not a few had come to this far land impelled thereto 
by a love of freedom which the East would not satisfy. Yet 
a common poverty made brethren of them all. 

In 1791, by special Act of Congress, four hundred acres 
of land was granted to each head of a family who had made 
improvements in Illinois prior to 1788, except village im- 
provements. A list of names, entitled to these donations, 
shows a total number of two hundred and forty-four, eighty 
of whom were Americans, the others being French or 
French half-breeds. By allowing the estimated number of 
five souls to a family, we have a total population in that 



►< 

n 
> 

r 
O 

o 

a: 
o 
c 

en 
O 

H 
3^ 
w 

Z 
O 



n 
C 

a 
z 

■< 




PIONEER LIFE AND ADVENTURE 213 

year of 1,220. This was exclusive of negroes. Another 
side-light comes from the fact that before 1791, under the 
then existing militia law, the muster roll gives about 300 
men capable of bearing arms, of whom only sixty-five were 
American. This illustrates better than words the paucity of 
the population and their defenceless condition. 

"In the year 1797, a colony of one hundred and twenty-six 
persons — the largest which had yet arrived — was fatally stricken 
with disease," says Davidson and Stuve's history, quoting Western 
annals. " They were from Virginia, had descended the Ohio in 
the Spring, and landed at Fort Massac, from which they made their 
way across the country to New Design. This place, situated 
within the present limits of the county of Monroe, was first 
established in 1782. It was located on an elevated and beautiful 
plateau, barren of timber, overlooking both the Kaskaskia and 
Mississippi Rivers. The season chanced to be exceedingly wet, 
the weather extremely warm, and the trails heavy with mud. The 
colonists, burdened with women and children, toiled for twenty-six 
days through the woods and swamps, covering a distance of one 
hundred and thirty-five miles. They arrived at their destination 
completely worn out, sick, and almost famished. At New Design 
they found the old settlers — who had long been harassed by Indians 
— poorly prepared to accommodate them. There was no lack of 
hospitality, but generosity of heart could not enlarge the cabins, 
seldom containing more than one room, into which three and four 
families were now crowded, sick ones and all. Food was in- 
sufficient, salt very scarce, and medical aid out of the question. 
A putrid and malignant fever broke out among the newcomers, 
attended by such fatality as to sweep half of them into the grave 
before the coming of Winter. No such fatal disease ever appeared 
before or since in the country." 

Nor did it aflPect any of the older inhabitants, yet the 
report being borne eastward tended greatly to retard immi- 
gration for several years. 

Wherever the adventurous foot of a white man trod in 
the Illinois country, that was the day of hardship, danger, 



214 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

and death. Every forest covert, every concealing tuft of 
prairie grass, every sharp bend in the stream, might hide 
some skulking red enemy. In the little cleared fields, even 
within those log enclosures called home, no man felt safe 
from attack. Parties of vengeful warriors would burst 
from the dark woods, work their hellish deeds, and vanish, 
leaving death and destruction behind. But if this was the 
day for deeds, it was not the time for proclaiming them. 
The majority of the earlier settlers were illiterate men, they 
seldom came in contact with others of their own race ex- 
cepting their more immediate neighbors, and no newspaper 
flourished to reward heroism. But few out of the many 
deeds of adventure, of desperate peril and suffering, have 
survived, and these are set forth in the fewest words pos- 
sible. We will make mention of some of those as recorded 
in the " Annals of the West," pages 700 to 705. Multiply 
these a hundred fold, and they may afford a faint mental 
picture of those ten years of continuous horror along that 
battling Illinois frontier. 

At first that section known as the American Bottom — 
the rich strip of low land lying between the Ozarks and the 
Mississippi, and extending northward until nearly opposite 
St. Louis — seemed the chosen field for Indian foray and 
destruction. As early as 1783 one James Flannery was 
murdered by a marauding party of savages while on a hunt- 
ing expedition. A few years later the Indians openly attack- 
ed the American settlement at Bellefontaine, in what is now 
Monroe County, killed James Andrews, his wife and one 
daughter, together with James White and Samuel McClure. 
Two daughters of Andrews were taken prisoners, and 
borne by their captors as far as Peoria Lake. One died 
in the Indian village, the other was later ransomed by 
French traders, and as late as 1850 was still living in St. 
Clair County, the mother of a large family. Most of those 
in this settlement had built, and retired into, a large block- 



PIONEER LIFE AND ADVENTURE 215 

house, but these were recklessly taking their chances outside. 
Not long afterwards, and near the same place, William 
Biggs was taken prisoner. While himself, John Vallis, 
and Joseph and Benjamin Ogle, were passing from the 
station on the hills to the block-house fort in the bottom, 
they were suddenly attacked by Indians. Biggs and Vallis 
were a few rods in advance of the others. The latter was 
instantly killed, and Biggs captured. The others escaped 
in safety. Biggs was taken across the prairies to a Kickapoo 
town on the Wabash. The Indians treated him kindly, 
offering him the daughter of a brave for a wife, and proposed 
to adopt him into their tribe. He was finally Hberated 
by the French traders, and later became a resident of St. 
Clair County, a member of the territorial legislature, and 
judge of the county court. He published a narrative of his 
captivity among the Indians. During this same year, 
James Garrison and Benjamin Ogle, while hauling hay 
from the bottom, were attacked. Ogle was shot iri the 
shoulder, where the ball remained, but Garrison sprung 
from the load and escaped unhurt into the woods. The 
horses took fright, and running away carried the helpless 
Ogle safely into the settlement. Later, while engaged in 
stacking that same hay, Samuel Garrison, and a man named 
Riddick, were killed by the Indians, and both scalped. 

The year following the savages became exceedingly bold, 
devoting their attention particularly to the killing of cattle 
and stealing of horses. Nor were they satisfied entirely 
with this species of mischief. A party of them attacked 
three boys, only a few yards from the Bellefontaine block- 
house, one of whom, David Waddell, was struck with a 
tomahawk in three places, and scalped, yet he recovered. 
The others succeeded in escaping unhurt. About this same 
time a young man named James Turner, while out hunting 
along the American Bottom, was waylaid and shot. Two 
men travelling to St. Louis were ambuscaded, killed, and 



21 6 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

scalped. Two other men were attacked while on a load of 
hay, one being killed outright, while his companion was 
scalped, but recovered. During this same reign of terror 
throughout what is now Monroe County, John Ferrel was 
killed, and John Dempsey was scalped but afterwards 
made his escape. 

During the year 1790 the Indians seemed also to concen- 
trate their depredations against the scattered settlers along 
the American Bottom, and Bellefontaine became again 
the centre of their hostile operations. During the Winter, 
when the pioneers usually felt more secure from attack, a 
party of Osage Indians from Missouri, previously peaceable, 
suddenly crossed the Mississippi, and stole a number of 
their horses. The Americans rallied, took their trail, and 
overtaking them, exchanged fire. James Worley, one of 
the oldest among the settlers, getting somewhat in advance 
of the others, was shot and scalped, his head being cut off 
and left upon a sand-bar, beside his mutilated body. Some- 
what later in the season, James Smith, a Baptist preacher 
from Kentucky, who was on a visit to these frontiers, was 
taken prisoner by a roving band of Kickapoos, and had a 
most unpleasant experience. While in company with a 
Mrs. Huff, and a Frenchman whose name has not been 
preserved, he was riding on horseback from the block-house 
to a settlement then known as Little Village. The savages 
fired upon them from an ambuscade near Bellefontaine, 
killing the Frenchman's horse at the first shot. They then 
sprang upon the woman and her child, whom they de- 
spatched with the tomahawk, and Smith was taken prisoner. 
His own horse having also been shot, he at first attempted to 
escape on foot, and having some valuable papers in his saddle- 
bags managed to throw them into the bushes, where they 
were found the next day by a friend. He might possibly 
have gotten away in safety, but being very zealous in good 
works, he suddenly stopped and fell on his knees in prayer 



PIONEER LIFE AND ADVENTURE 217 

for the poor woman being butchered, who had been seri- 
ously impressed for some days under his ministration 
about religion. The Frenchman, unhurt, escaped into the 
thicket, but the Indians soon had Smith, and loaded him 
up with numerous packs of plunder they had collected 
during their raid. They then took up their line of march 
through the prairies. Smith, who was a large, heavy man, 
soon became exhausted under his load and beneath the 
hot sun. Several consultations were held by the Indians 
as to how best to dispose of their prisoner. Some among 
them were for despatching him at once, being fearful lest 
the whites pursue them from the settlements. Frequently 
they pointed their guns at him with this purpose in mind. 
But Smith, understanding something of the Indian character 
and superstitions, would bare his breast in defiance, and 
point upward to signify that the Great Spirit was his pro- 
tector. Seeing him frequently on his knees in prayer, and 
hearing him singing hymns on the march, which he did to 
relieve his own mind of despondency, they came to the con- 
clusion that he must be " a great medicine," holding con- 
stant intercourse with the Great Spirit, and that it would 
not be safe to kill him. After reaching this decision, they 
relieved him of his burden, and treated him with extreme 
kindness. He was taken to the Kickapoo towns on the 
Wabash, where after a few months' captivity, he obtained 
deliverance, the inhabitants of New Design, who greatly 
valued his ministerial labors, paying one hundred and sev- 
enty dollars for his ransom. 

Meanwhile there was no cessation in the Indian troubles 
along the border. Raids were constantly being made on 
exposed settlements, nor were the settlers in sufficient num- 
bers at any one place to retaliate in force. It was a continual 
record of skirmishing, the savages apparently not so anxious 
to take human life as to procure for their own use the horses 
of the bordermen. To these, however, this was always a 



2i8 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

most serious loss, and certain to provoke a fight, if the red 
thieves could be overhauled. In May, 1791, while endeavor- 
ing to protect his horses, John Dempsey was attacked, but 
succeeded in making his escape. He was a man of some 
importance in that young settlement, and, as soon as the 
matter was reported, a party of eight men started promptly 
on the trail of the marauders. The Indians outnumbered 
the whites two to one, and coming into contact, both sides 
immediately took to the trees. A running fight was kept 
up for several hours, the Indians retreating, the whites re- 
morselessly pursuing them from tree to tree, until night 
finally put an end to the conflict. Five of the Indians were 
killed, while none of the whites were injured. This com- 
pany of settlers was composed of Captain Hull, Joseph Ogle, 
Sr., Benjamin Ogle, James N. Semen, Sr., J. Ryan, Wm. 
Bryson, John Porter, and D. Draper. 

The success of this expedition had a quieting effect for 
some time, so that little occurred to disturb the peace of the 
border excepting a few desultory cattle raids, until the be- 
ginning of the year 1793. Then followed a period of con- 
tention and alarm wherever a venturesome white settler 
had cleared his little patch of ground in the heart of the 
backwoods. The few earlier settlers were greatly strength- 
ened this year by the opportune arrival of a band of emi- 
grants from Kentucky. These were nearly all bordermen, 
and among them was that famous family of Indian fighters 
named Whiteside. It was not long before their energy and 
courage were put to severe test. In February an Indian, 
skulking in ambush, succeeded in severely wounding Joel 
Whiteside, although he escaped with his life. Others, 
however, were not so fortunate, and in quick succession, 
John Moore, Andrew Kinney, Thos. Todd, and several 
others whose names are now unknown, were killed and 
scalped by various raiding parties. Finally, a party of 
Kickapoos, supposed at the time to be headed by the cele- 



PIONEER LIFE AND ADVENTVRE 219 

brated war-chief, Old Pecan, made a predatory excursion 
into the American Bottom. Near where is now the residence 
of S. W. Miles, in Monroe County, they succeeded in steal- 
ing nine horses, and began their retreat. A number of 
settlers rallied and commenced a vigorous pursuit, but of 
these many dropped out, unwilling to venture so far into the 
Indian country, until finally all had abandoned the desperate 
undertaking except eight men. This little band was led by 
Wm. Whiteside, a borderman of unquestionable bravery 
and great prudence. Those with him were Samuel Judy, 
John Whiteside, Uel Whiteside, Wm. L. Whiteside, Wm. 
Harrington, John Dempsey, and John Porter. 

This little band of intrepid frontiersmen followed closely 
on the trail of the retreating savages, passing near the site 
of the city of Belleville, toward the Indian encampment on 
Shoal Creek, where they succeeded in recovering three of 
the stolen horses, without permitting their enemies to be- 
come aware of their presence. The band of pursuers, small 
as it was, now divided into two parts, consisting of four men 
each, and prepared to approach the unsuspecting Indian 
camp from opposite directions. The signal for attack was 
to be the discharge of the leader's gun. Stealing cautiously 
forward through the timber lining the bank of the stream, 
they succeeded in getting within firing-distance unobserved, 
and poured in a withering volley. One Indian, a son of 
Old Pecan, was instantly killed, another mortally, and 
several others slightly, wounded ; then the uninjured savages 
fled in confusion, leaving their guns behind them. Such 
unexpected courage on the part of the whites, together with 
the attack on two sides at once, convinced the Indians 
that they were being followed by a large force, and the wily 
old chief approached, intending to beg for quarter. Dis- 
covering, however, how few there were of the whites as 
opposed to the number of his own warriors, he determined 
instantly on resistance, and called aloud to his braves to 



220 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

return, and retrieve their honor. He had surrendered his 
own gun to the whites on first coming up, and now seized the 
gun in the hands of Captain Whiteside, striving to wrest 
it from him. Whiteside was a powerful man, and he forced 
the enraged Indian back, permitting him to go to his people 
unhurt, deeming it dishonorable to destroy an unarmed 
man, after he had surrendered. But this little band of 
eight men was by this time in a most perilous position. 
They stood alone in the very heart of the Indian country, 
where hundreds of warriors could be raised in a few hours' 
time. Captain Whiteside, who was as prudent as brave, 
decided at once upon retreat. With those horses they had 
recovered, they immediately plunged into the wilderness, 
heading for home. They travelled night and day, neither 
eating nor sleeping, until they arrived in safety at Whiteside's 
station in Monroe County. The extreme narrowness of 
their escape was made manifest that same night, when Old 
Pecan, with seventy warriors, pressing hot on their trail, 
reached the vicinity of Cahokia. From that time the very 
name of Whiteside ever struck terror among the Kickapoos. 
Whether right or wrong, this action brought swift 
retaliation on the part of the Indians along the border. In 
revenge for the death^of Old Pecan's son, a young man named 
Thomas Whiteside was shot and killed close to the station, 
and a little later a son of Captain Whiteside was toma- 
hawked, and died of his wounds. Mr. Huff, one of the 
oldest settlers, was also waylaid and killed while on his 
way to Kaskaskia. The year following, two white men and 
some French negroes were killed on the American Bottom, 
and several others taken prisoners. About this same time, 
several members of the family of Mr. McMahon were killed, 
and himself and daughter taken prisoners. This man lived 
upon the outskirts of the settlement. Four Indians attacked 
his house in daylight, killed his wife and four children before 
his eyes, laid their bodies in a row on the floor of the cabin, 



PIONEER LIFE AND ADVENTURE 221 

took him and his daughter, and departed hastily for their 
towns. On the second night of their march, McMahon, 
discovering the Indians asleep, slipped on their moccasins 
and made his escape. He arrived at the settlement just as 
the neighbors v^ere about to bury his family. They had 
already enclosed the bodies in rude coffins, and were covering 
them with earth. He looked at. the closing graves, and 
raising his eyes to Heaven said in pious resignation, " They 
were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death 
are not divided." His daughter, later Mrs. Catskill, of 
Ridge Prairie, was ransomed by the charitable contributions 
of the people. A short time after this occurrence, the White- 
sides and others, to the number of fourteen, made an attack 
upon an encampment of Indians, of greatly superior force, 
which was situated at the foot of the bluffs, just west of the 
present site of Belleville. Only one Indian out of the entire 
party returned to his tribe to tell the story of the battle. The 
graves of the remainder were to be seen only a few years ago 
in the border of the thicket near the battle-ground. During 
the heat of the skirmish. Captain Whiteside was severely 
wounded, — he thought mortally, — having received a shot 
in the side. As he fell he called to his sons to keep on fight- 
ing and not to yield an inch of ground, or permit the savages 
to touch his body. Uel Whiteside, who had also been shot in 
the arm, so that he could no longer use his rifle, hastily 
examined his father's wound, discovering that the bullet 
had glanced along the ribs, and lodged against the spine. 
With that daring and disregard for pain so often character- 
istic of bordermen, he immediately whipped out his knife, 
gashed the skin, and extracting the ball, held it up, crying, 
*' You're not dead yet, father." The old man leaped to his 
feet, and renewed the fight, bearing his full part to the end. 
Many such instances of desperate intrepidity, and warlike 
heroism, distinguished the men who in those days of peril 
were called upon to defend the frontiers of Illinois. 



222 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

The defeat of the confederated Indians in 1794, on the 
Maumee, by General Anthony Wayne, brought peace to 
these long-harassed settlers along the Illinois border. A 
few horses were occasionally stolen, and in 1802 two 
Americans were killed, but no open attack was made upon 
the settlements. Families again took up their abode on 
the open prairies, and began pushing out farther into the 
unoccupied wilderness. Emigrants from the States came 
clustering around them, and the cultivation of the soil was 
pursued without fear of molestation. During the period 
extending between 1802 and 18 10, nothing occurred to 
interrupt the quiet routine of peace upon the frontier. 

While what is now Illinois was thus a portion of the 
Northwestern Territory, it had been divided into two coun- 
ties, Randolph and St. Clair. In 1800, by an Act of Con- 
gress the whole of the Northwestern Territory, with the 
exception of the State of Ohio, was named Indiana, and 
Wm. H. Harrison, later President of the United States, was 
appointed its Governor, Illinois continued thus as a part of 
Indiana until February 3, 1809, when, by another Act of 
Congress, all that portion of the Indiana Territory which lies 
west of the W^abash River and a direct line drawn from that 
river and Fort Vincennes due north to the territorial line 
between the United States and Canada, was formed into a 
separate territory by the name of Illinois. Ninian Edwards, 
then Chief Justice of Kentucky, was named as Governor. In 
1810, new settlements had been formed in Gallatin, John- 
son, Union, and Jackson Counties, and the census gives the 
population of the territory at that time as 12,284 inhabi- 
tants. 



CHAPTER XVI 
THE TRAGEDY AT FORT DEARBORN 

IN 1812 this pleasant peace of the Illinois border was 
destined to be rudely interrupted by sudden wild Indian 
foray. The breaking out of a second war between England 
and the United States immediately involved the savages of 
the West, already restless from the constant encroachment 
of settlers, and stirred by the harangues of dissatisfied chiefs. 
Almost without exception, the various tribes allied them- 
selves promptly on the side of the redcoats, and began 
depredations along the entire exposed American frontier. 
The war itself opened within the present limits of Illinois 
with most pathetic tragedy. But it was not those long-time 
battling settlers of the southern counties, whose advance 
settlements now extended as far north as Edwardsville, 
in Madison County, upon whom this first shock fell. It 
was reserved for a little isolated garrison of regular soldiers, 
stationed at the extreme northeast corner, upon the very 
spot where to-day Chicago proudly looks forth across the 
blue waters of Lake Michigan. 

It is comparatively easy to stand in the open, amid the 
surroundings of unchanged nature, and recall some grim 
event of history which has taken place upon that spot. The 
mind responds happily to the summons, and quickly weaves 
the recorded details about those hills and valleys, woods 
and ravines. It all stands out once again, a clear mental pic- 
ture of that other day long past. But it is far different when 
a great city has sprung up there, and buried deep, beneath 
its mass, all evidences of former tragedy or heroic struggle. 

The great buildings rising on every side fetter imagination, 

223 



224 HISTORIC ILIINOIS 

and the obstructing curtain of time refuses to rise, to permit 
of our beholding things as they really were a brief century 
previous. We are too closely imprisoned within the stone 
walls of the present, — the wild, little understood, former 
life returns to us as the merest dream, the actors in it but 
shadows, unreal and indistinct. 

There are few busier spots in any city than that which 
Chicago presents at the southern approach to the Rush 
Street bridge. It is typically illustrative of commercial 
enterprise, and ever alive with business activity. During 
the hours of daylight the street is thronged with hurrying 
figures, and oftentimes blocked by a multitude of teams. It 
composes the centre of a vast wholesale district, and various 
interests constantly swirl and battle here for mastery- 
Out in the dull-colored river, huge passenger and freight 
steamers are continually churning past, while the great 
walls of business blocks, teeming with thousands of workers, 
rear themselves story upon story into a sky black with 
smoke. To stand there, amid such a throng, and read the 
inscription graven upon a tablet embedded within the red 
brick wall of a wholesale grocery opposite, is like being sud- 
denly awakened from a dream. The mind cannot at once 
compass the vast vista between. It seems unreal, untrue, 
so far a call from now to then, from this scene of feverish 
activity and money-getting, to that other day of frontier 
loneliness and heroic self-sacrifice. 

Let us walk slowly and thoughtfully from this spot south- 
ward on Michigan Avenue, one of the most stately boulevards 
of the world, past the sombre-hued business-houses, the mag- 
nificent hotels, the great buildings dedicated to art, music, 
and drama, until we arrive where the green park stretches 
along upon one side, smiling back upon rows of pleasant 
houses. It all forms a city scene to be remembered, to be 
long treasured in the mind, with its panorama of ever- 
changing natural and architectural beauty, its constantly 



THE TRAGEDY AT FORT DEARBORN 225 

recurring suggestions of refinement and wealth. Let us drift 
eastward as we approach Fourteenth Street, and select for 
our farther promenade one of those avenues running closer 
to the lake shore, avenues beautified by large and tasteful 
homes, rendered attractive by every device of wealth. At 
Eighteenth Street, we may pause and contemplate the bronze 
monument erected there. If we have done this thoughtfully, 
then we have lived over once again within our own minds 
one of the great tragedies of the Illinois frontier, for we 
have been walking upon historic ground, ground once red- 
dened with blood, along a path marched over by soldiers, 
women, and children, to their fate beneath the dripping 
knife and tomahawk of savages. 

It seems now so far away, so unreal in the midst of all 
this glamour and show. Yet here it was that the unspeakable 
horror was perpetrated. Here the hordes of painted savages 
skulked behind the sand-ridges, and leaped forth to kill and 
mutilate; here Wells died, as became a fearless soldier; 
here Ronan gave up his young life ungrudgingly ; here 
women and little ones, whose names have been forgotten, 
fell shrieking beneath the savage blows. Let us see if out 
of that dim past we cannot paint again, in fresher coloring, 
that old historic picture against the background of this 
busy city life. 

It is August of the year 1812. This is the uttermost 
frontier, and the northern Illinois country is a wilderness of 
prairie and wood, almost untouched by the venturesome 
foot of the explorer. A few scattered French settlements — 
their inhabitants largely half-breeds — dot the distant 
banks of the Mississippi and the Illinois. A little fringe 
of white settlers has pushed northward from the Ohio as 
far as the confines of the present county of Madison, but 
that is hundreds of miles distant. All communication, if 
any is had, must be by means of water-ways or dim Indian 
trails, while to the eastward only a single path leads through 



2 26 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

leagues of forest land to the distant outpost at Fort Wayne. 
So Fort Dearborn stands, a silent, isolated sentinel of civili- 
zation, in the very heart of a wilderness, the full extent of 
which no white man knew. Picture this spot — here at 
busy Rush Street bridge — in that month of August, 1812. 
Nine years previous. Lieutenant Swearingen, with his little 
company of regular soldiers, had landed on the desolate 
shore of the lake. Proceeding up the bank of the river, — 
a narrow stream, having but slight current, from where it 
then emptied near the present foot of Madison Street, — 
they finally selected this spot, where the river swerved 
southward, as being best fitted for purposes of fortification. 
Here the ground, generally flat and level, rose into some- 
thing of a mound, yielding from its summit a clear view far 
away across the plains of sand and prairie. It was a mag- 
nificent expanse of primeval nature outspread on every side, 
yet desolate in its unspeakable loneliness. And upon this 
spot these army pioneers erected a rude, typical frontier 
fort. 

This consisted of a simple stockade of logs, standing each 
upon end, firmly implanted in the ground, extending upward 
some fifteen feet, and sharpened at the top. This outer 
stockade, which was built perfectly solid (excepting for 
one entrance facing southward, protected by heavy gates of 
oaken timber, and another, a subterranean one, leading 
out beneath the north wall to the river), was sufficiently 
large to contain a small parade ground, together with the 
requisite buildings for the expected garrison, such as officers' 
quarters, troop barracks, guard house, and magazine. 
These were alike roughly constructed of logs, while two 
block-houses, each erected so that the second story should 
overhang the first, were built as an additional protection, 
one standing at the southeast, the other at the northwest, 
corner of the palisaded wall. A narrow elevated walk, 
or banquette, of wood enabled defenders to stand within 




TABLET COMMEMORATING FORT DEARBORN 



ERECTED ON THE WALLS OF THE BUILDINC; NOW OCCUPYING THE SITE 



THE TRAGEDY AT FORT DEARBORN 227 

the enclosure, and look out across the sharpened pickets 
at the scene beyond. 

In August, 1812, this primitive structure contained a 
garrison of four officers, with fifty-four non-commissioned 
officers and privates of the First Regiment, United States 
Infantry. The commandant was Captain Nathan Heald, 
an experienced soldier in the prime of life. Associated with 
him were Lieutenant Linus T. Helm, an officer who had 
much frontier service to his credit ; Ensign Ronan, a young, 
smooth-faced lad in his first command, and Surgeon Van 
Voorhees. The wives of the two senior officers were with 
them, Mrs. Helm, a bride but seventeen years of age, 
the step-daughter of John Kinzie, a much-respected Indian 
trader, who had his home almost directly across the river 
from the fort. A number of the soldiers also had their 
families with them, so that altogether the stockade contained 
twelve women and twenty children. 

If possible, let us throw aside our present environment, 
and imagine ourselves soldiers at that isolated spot a century 
ago. Stand beside me for a moment, and glance out across 
those sharpened palisades upon that scene of unvexed 
wilderness, stretching away upon every hand. It is hardly 
conceivable now, amid the mighty buildings and the restless 
activity of these city streets, that such a picture could then 
unroll itself. A narrow, sluggish river, its low banks reed- 
bordered, moved slowly lakeward just beneath the northern 
wall. Across its waters a rope ferry connected the fort 
with John Kinzie's rather pretentious cabin on the opposite 
bank. In all that wide domain of sea and sand and 
prairie, only four other scattered settlers' homes appeared 
within view. These were occupied by Ouilmette, Burns, 
and Lee, the last named possessing also a second cabin, 
situated farther out upon the south branch of the little river, 
and occupied by a tenant named Liberty White. These 
were alike, one-story, single-roomed huts, and were the 



228 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

sole visible evidences of advancing civilization. Just w^est 
of the fort stood a tw^o-story log house, which had been 
erected as a trading-store for the Indians, so as to obviate 
as much as possible all necessity for their entering the fort 
itself. The southern bank of the river, both above and 
below, was fairly honeycombed by caves dug in the soft 
earth, in which the soldiers stored the vegetables raised 
in their gardens. 

Such were the more immediate surroundings. But 
what of that wider view, sweeping to the far horizon } It 
was then the profound loneliness of such a situation must 
have rested like a weight upon the most buoyant spirit. 
Westward the dull level of the plains swept out into un- 
known, unexplored mystery, roamed over by strange races 
of savages ; to the north the land was more broken, and 
somewhat heavily wooded, yet no white man dwelt there 
for hundreds of leagues; to the east, and only a few yards 
away, the waves of the great lake broke moaning upon the 
wide, sandy beach, the restless water stretching in tumultu- 
ous loneliness to their distant juncture with the arching sky; 
southward, the almost level prairie, brown and sun-parched, 
merged swiftly into rounded heaps of drifted sand, the only 
relief being found in a few straggling groups of wind- 
racked cottonwoods. Beautiful as it may have been in its 
variegated coloring and extended vista, it was so utterly 
desolate, so still and solemn, as to leave behind a feeling 
of depression difficult to withstand. None of that little 
garrison could fail to realize to the full how isolated they 
were from all others of their race. 

Early during August of that year 1812, there came 
drifting to the ears of the garrison, by means of Indian 
runners, rumors regarding the approaching struggle with 
England, and of a growing uneasiness among the surround- 
ing tribes, especially the Pottawattomies and the Wyandots. 
On the ninth the first direct, and official, news reached 



THE TRAGEDY AT FORT DEARBORN 229 

them, and proved to be of the gravest character. On that 
date an Indian named Winnemeg, or Catfish, a friendly 
v^arrior of the Pottawattomies, arrived directly from Detroit, 
bringing word of the English capture of the garrison at 
Mackinac, together v^ith orders from General Hull, in 
command of the American troops in that territory, to "evac- 
uate the fort at Chicago if practicable, and in that event 
to distribute all the United States property in the fort, or 
factory, to the Indians in the neighborhood, and repair to 
Fort Wayne." 

The situation at Dearborn at that time v^as such as to 
test severely the judgment of any man. If Captain Heald 
failed to decide promptly and for the best, it was no more 
than many a gallant commander has done both before and 
since. Already rumors of the condition of affairs had gone 
abroad, and the Indians, many of them hostile and threaten- 
ing, began to gather around the stockade, in constantly in- 
creasing numbers. These made permanent camp somewhat 
to the westward of the fort, near where the river forked, per- 
haps at the present intersection of Clark and Lake Streets. 
Their scouting parties were to be met with along every 
trail leading to the south and west. This condition, which 
almost amounted to a siege, as the soldiers dared not venture 
without the walls except in large parties, was greatly aggra- 
vated by the situation within. An unusually large number 
of the little garrison were upon the sick list, and unfit for 
duty, while the perilous task of conveying women and 
children over that long trail, stretching through woods and 
swamps to Fort Wayne, every mile of it traversing the 
hunting-grounds of hostile savages, was not to be lightly 
considered. In truth, it was a situation so filled with peril 
as to make the boldest hesitate. Heald seemingly quailed 
before it, and, unfortunately, hesitated far too long in de- 
ciding what was his duty. The delay merely served to 
aggravate matters, bad enough from the start. It brought 



230 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

new courage and numbers to the allied Indians, and aroused, 
among the officers of the garrison, a spirit almost akin to 
mutiny. 

But through all this internal dissatisfaction and outside 
threatening. Captain Heald apparently remained firm in 
his determination to obey orders, as well as in his confidence 
relative to the friendliness of the Indians. These increased 
rapidly in numbers and insolence, there probably being 
fully five hundred in their encampment by August 12, while 
many others were hurrying toward them along the trails. 
They held frequent councils in the black shadows of their 
lodges, and upon the evening of that day the commandant 
attended one, although every one of his officers refused to 
accompany him. Word had been brought them that 
treachery was intended, and when Captain Heald left the 
protection of the fort, and walked forth upon the open prairie, 
those left within trained loaded cannon in the direction of 
the distant encampment. This evidence of watchfulness, 
coupled with the absence of so many whom they had hoped 
to entrap, induced the wily savages to postpone their planned 
attack, and the Captain was permitted to return in safety. 
During this council, Heald proposed to the chiefs to dis-: 
tribute among them the stores and ammunition belonging 
to the garrison, provided they would agree to furnish him 
with safe escort to Fort Wayne. The assembled Indians 
were profuse in their pledges, and there is much reason to 
believe that these were at the time honestly made. 

Yet here enters in the strange, inexplicable, yet entirely 
natural vacillation, leading up to a most deplorable tragedy. 
Alarmed, no doubt, by the imminent danger surrounding 
them, influential members of the garrison began urging 
the impolicy of thus furnishing the Indians with arms 
and ammunition, which they might later use against 
the retreating whites. Heald appears to have been over- 
borne by the force of this argument, so that on August 13, 



THE TRAGEDY AT FORT DEARBORN 231 

in direct opposition to his promises, he had all the extra 
ammunition thrown into an abandoned well within the 
stockade, while the store of liquor was broken open and 
poured into the river. This deceit, being early discovered 
by the watchful savages, merely served to increase their 
resentment, and contributed much to the carrying forward 
of plans of treachery. 

The fourteenth was rendered notable by the unexpected 
arrival of a small reenforcing party, who approached by way 
of the land trail, leading along the lake shore from the east. 
Although severely worried by the enveloping hordes of angry 
Indians, who sought to obstruct their progress, these latter 
finally succeeded in reaching the gates of the fort, which 
were thrown open for their admittance. The despairing 
garrison, eager for any news from without, surged about 
them, with anxious questioning and vociferous welcome. 
They proved to be a party of thirty Miami warriors, in- 
duced to accompany Captain William Wells, a white man 
of life-long experience upon the border, and the adopted 
son of Little Turtle, the famous war-chief of the Miamis. 
Wells was, in many respects, a remarkable frontier char- 
acter. Captured while but a mere child, he had spent many 
years in Indian camps, rising among them to the dignity of 
a warrior, and taking personal part in more than one wild 
foray. Later in life, his white blood asserting itself, he had 
returned to his own people, serving gallantly as a scout un- 
der Wayne's command, and at this time held the important 
position of Indian Agent at Fort Wayne. At that remote 
post he had learned by chance of the order to evacuate 
Fort Dearborn, and comprehending fully the hostile pur- 
poses of the Indians, had made a forced march through 
the wilderness, hoping thus to arrive in sufficient time to 
protect his niece, Mrs. Heald, as well as to assist the be- 
leaguered garrison. But his coming was already too late. 
The grave mistake had been made, and was beyond recti- 



232 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

fying. The worst passions of those encompassing savages 
had been aroused, and although they succeeded in partially 
concealing their intended treachery, the trap of death was 
already laid for its unsuspecting victims. On the evening 
of this same day a second council was held; but, if any- 
thing, this proved less satisfactory than the other. The Ind- 
ian spokesmen were vehement in their indignation over the 
wanton destruction of ammunition and liquor, and their 
manner was insolent and threatening. Nevertheless, they 
reiterated their pledge of protection to the garrison, if they 
would desert the fort, and, in spite of bitter opposition on 
the part of his officers, Captain Heald determined to put 
these pledges to the test. 

That little stockade of logs, erected on the southern 
bank of the Chicago River, within sound of the booming 
waves of the lake, the great silent plains stretching all around 
it, was an animated scene that night of final preparation. 
John Kinzie had brought his family within its walls, while 
other settlers of the neighborhood, some twelve in number, 
had likewise sought its protection, so that sinewy back- 
woodsmen mingled with the soldiers and the women and 
children, in hurried preparation for the fateful march of 
the morrow. Wagons were loaded with the necessities 
of the trail, and preparations made for the transportation of 
the sick, and those others unable to travel on foot. Then 
the reserve ammunition, twenty-five rounds to each man, 
was distributed, and the wearied workers finally flung them- 
selves down for whatever sleep was possible. Above them, 
on the narrow platforms, the sentries gazed anxiously forth 
into the black night shrouding the prairie, where many a 
warrior skulked and gloated in fiendish anticipation of the 
morrow. Beyond, at the Indian village, great fires blazed, 
about which dark forms leaped in wild and threatening 
dances. 

At nine o'clock in the morning the little party left the 




MONUMENT MARKING THE SITE OF THE FORT 
DEARBORN MASSACRE 



THE TRAGEDY AT FORT DEARBORN 233 

fort. It was a beautiful August day. The sun shone with 
unwonted splendor, and Lake Michigan " was a sheet of 
burnished gold." As the fugitives filed slowly out of the 
fort gate, the company of infantry, in light marching order, 
took the advance on foot. Following them closely was a 
caravan of wagons, piled high with camp equipage, upon 
which rode the wives and children of the soldiers, together 
with those too sick to travel otherwise. The officers' ladies 
were mounted, while the few white settlers travelled as best 
suited themselves. The rear of the column was guarded 
by a portion of Wells's Miami escort. By some strange 
fortune, as the little party thus emerged from the stockade, 
on the commencement of their desperate trip through the 
wilderness, the band began playing " The Dead March," 
but were instantly ordered to substitute a more cheering 
tune. 

Captain Wells, who, having no faith in the pledges made, 
had blackened his face, in accordance with the custom of 
those Indians among whom he had lived so long, led the 
van, accompanied by a few of his Miami scouts. To the 
right and rear of the column straggled along the escort of 
nearly five hundred Pottawattomies. In this order the 
company travelled slowly southward, along the shining 
sand of the level beach, with the smiling waters of the lake 
close beside them upon the left. Some among them un- 
doubtedly felt distrust of those red warriors, skulking along 
at their side, their cruel eyes gleaming beneath matted hair, 
as they furtively contemplated their destined victims. But 
in the hearts of most was merely a rejoicing that they were 
again bound eastward, toward their old homes. Children 
looked forth from behind the wagon covers, and clapped 
their hands in innocent glee at the unusual spectacle, while 
the mothers watched them and smiled. As these two 
columns, the white and the red, approached in their south- 
ward march a low range of sand hills which separated the 



234 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

beach from the prairie, probably at about what is now 
the foot of Twelfth Street, the Indians silently defiled to the 
right, thus bringing these slight elevations of sand between 
them and the whites, who continued toiling along nearer 
the shore. No one thought anything of this act at the time ; 
it seemed perfectly natural, and engendered no feeling of 
suspicion. Only a little farther down the beach this inter- 
vening ridge terminated, and there it was supposed the two 
diverging columns would reunite for the continuance of 
their long journey together around the head of the great 
lake. 

In this way the march of the fugitives continued unin- 
terrupted for perhaps a mile and a half. The low walls of 
the deserted fort, already overrun by a howling mass of 
savages, quarrelling over the spoils left behind, were still 
visible, when the advance files of that sturdy column of 
infantry reached the spot that is now the foot of Eighteenth 
Street. Suddenly there was a halt of the scouts in front. 
Then Wells wheeled his horse, and rode back furiously, 
shouting as he came: "They are going to attack; form 
instantly, and charge them ! " These hasty words of warn- 
ing were barely uttered, when the savages, concealed behind 
the sand ridge, poured a deadly volley into the close ranks 
of the troops. Totally surprised, and for the instant almost 
panic-stricken, the dead and wounded lying at their feet, 
the officers succeeding in holding their men in something 
like order, swung them into hasty battle line, and, with 
inspiriting cheers, led them in impetuous charge against 
their concealed assailants. At the summit of the sand ridge, 
they were met with so hot a fire, they were barely able to 
hold their position. A number fell, including one veteran 
soldier of seventy years. The action became fierce and 
general, rapidly extending down the entire line. The 
Miamis fled with almost the first fire, their chief pausing 
barely long enough to hurl his defiance at the Pottawatto- 



THE TRAGEDY AT FORT DEARBORN 235 

mies before joining his cowardly companions. The 
troops, although poorly prepared for battle, fought with 
great gallantry, forcing at first the savages in their front to 
give way, and gaining a foothold on the open prairie beyond 
the sand ridge. But they were soon overwhelmed by the 
numbers hurled against them. The Indians outflanked 
their short line, and in less than fifteen minutes from the 
first attack had gained possession of the horses, with the 
provisions and baggage wagons. Here commenced their 
murderous work upon the helpless women and children. 

At once it became a terrible scene, seldom equalled in all 
the bloody annals of the frontier. Dr. Van Voorhees, who 
had been wounded at the first fire, was, while in a paroxysm 
of fear, cut down by the blow of a tomahawk. Ensign Ronan, 
although mortally wounded, continued to struggle bravely 
against a powerful savage who had seized him, until he finally 
sank beneath the cruel thrust of a knife. The young wife 
of Lieutenant Helm was attacked by a savage, who sought 
desperately to cleave her skull. Springing aside quickly, 
the blow merely grazed her shoulder, and in self-defence 
she wound her arms tightly about his neck. In the midst 
of the struggle which ensued, another Indian grasped and 
forcibly bore her away, plunging her into the water of the 
lake, and held her firmly down, almost concealed from 
sight. Discovering that he had no immediate intention of 
drowning her, she ventured to look up, and, through his 
disguise of paint and war feathers, recognized the well- 
known face of the friendly young chief. Black Partridge, 
whom she had known from childhood. As the fierce melee 
began to slacken, he bore her safe to the shore, and pro- 
tected her from the others. The wife of one of the soldiers 
fought with such desperation that she was literally cut to 
pieces, and her mangled remains were left on the field. 
Mrs. Heald also fought for her life like a heroine, and re- 
ceived several wounds. After she had been captured, a 



236 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

savage assailed her with his tomahawk, but she was saved 
by the interposition of a friendly chief. 

Scattered by the fierce fire, their formation broken, 
their officers wounded or dead, the troops fought bravely 
until only twenty-seven out of sixty-six remained, when, 
on receiving pledge of protection, the helpless remnant 
surrendered. Scarcely had they ceased resistance when a 
brutal savage assailed one of the unprotected baggage- 
wagons, and twelve children fell beneath his murderous 
tomahawk. Captain Wells, maddened at the awful sight, 
shouted, " If that is your game, I can kill too ! " and 
instantly breaking away from his guards, rode furiously 
toward the Pottawattomie camp, where the Indian squaws 
and children were. For a brief time in his swift flight, he 
succeeded in avoiding the deadly aims of the pursuing 
savages, by lying prone on his horse's neck, but finally the 
animal was killed, and the rider once more made a prisoner. 
Winnemeg and Wabansee, both of whom were friendly 
to the whites, interceded to save his life, but Peesotum, 
a Pottawattomie chief, gave him his death-blow, by a stab 
in the back. His body was terribly mutilated, the heart 
being cut out and torn in pieces, for distribution among the 
tribes as a token of bravery. On the following day, Billy 
Caldwell, a half-breed Wyandot, gathered up the scattered 
fragments of his body, and gave them decent burial in the 
sand. Wells Street, in Chicago, perpetuates his name. 

So ended the unequal struggle, the total Indian loss not 
exceeding fifteen, while of the whites, twenty-six infantry- 
men, twelve settlers, two women, and twelve children were 
killed. Captain and Mrs. Heald, Lieutenant and Mrs. 
Helm, with twenty-five non-commissioned officers and 
privates, besides eleven women and children, were made 
prisoners. Of these, more than half were wounded, many 
seriously. Unfortunately, in the hurry and excitement of 
the moment, the wounded were not particularly referred 



THE TRAGEDY AT FORT DEARBORN 237 

to in the stipulation of surrender. This was immediately 
taken advantage of by the treacherous savages. Such 
helpless sufferers, on being conveyed to the Pottawattomie 
camp, were regarded as proper subjects for the most savage 
and cowardly brutality, and several were given over to tor- 
ture, while during the night following the battle, five were 
tomahawked. 

In this connection, the recollections of Mrs. Helm, as 
afterwards recorded in a book of her composition, are par- 
ticularly graphic. Saved, as already narrated, by Black 
Partridge, she was conducted from the water to the sandy 
beach. It was a hot August day, and walking through 
the loose sand in her drenched condition became inexpres- 
sibly painful. She stopped, and took off her shoes to free 
them from the sand, when a squaw seized and carried them 
off, compelling her to limp along without them. When 
they finally gained the prairie, she was met by her father, 
who brought her the good news that her husband was safe, 
and but slightly wounded. Arriving at the wigwams, Mrs. 
Helm saw the wife of Wau-bee-nee-mah, a chief from the 
Illinois River, standing near. Seeing her exhausted con- 
dition, this squaw seized a kettle, dipped up some water 
from a stream close at hand, threw into it some maple sugar, 
and stirring it up with her hand, offered it to the lady to 
drink. This unexpected act of kindness touched her deeply, 
but her attention was soon directed toward another matter. 
The fort had become a scene of plunder ; the cattle were 
shot down as they ran at large, and now lay dead or dying 
around. Suddenly an old squaw, infuriated by the sight 
of so much blood, grasped a stable-fork, and assaulted a 
wounded soldier, who lay groaning and writhing in agony 
under the heat of the sun. With delicacy of feeling hardly 
to be expected at such a time and place, Wau-bee-nee-mah 
stretched a mat across two poles, so as to hide this dreadful 
scene from Mrs. Helm. 



238 , HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

In the battle, Captain Heald had received two wounds, 
and his wife seven. Her captor, being about to pull off her 
bonnet so as to scalp her, young Chaudonnaire, an Indian 
of the St. Joseph tribe, who knew her, came to the rescue, 
and offered a mule he had just taken, for her ransom, to 
which he added ten bottles of whiskey. The latter tempta- 
tion was too strong to be resisted. Captain Heald was made 
prisoner by an Indian from the Kankakee River, who, seeing 
the pitiable condition of Mrs. Heald, generously released 
his captive, that he might accompany his wife. Chaudon- 
naire, with some others, placed both in a bark canoe, which 
a Pottawattomie chief paddled for three hundred miles 
along the eastern coast of Lake Michigan until they reached 
Mackinac, where they were kindly received by the British 
commander, and on being sent to Detroit were exchanged. 
Mrs. Helm received a slight wound in her ankle, besides 
having her horse shot under her, and, after passing through 
the scenes already described, was permitted to accompany 
the family of her step-father, Mr. Kinzie, to Detroit, they 
being spared from the threatened general massacre by the 
intervention of Billy Caldwell, Black Partridge, and other 
friendly chiefs. Her husband was taken to the Au Sable, 
thence to St. Louis, and finally liberated by the aid of Thomas 
Forsythe, then Indian agent at Peoria. The other captive 
soldiers, with their wives and children, were dispersed 
among the tribes along the Illinois and Wabash Rivers, 
some few among them being sent north along the lake 
shore. The majority were ransomed at Detroit the follow- 
ing Spring, although a number remained in captivity for 
another year, but were not unkindly treated. 

And all this took place within the very business limits 
of what is now Chicago. At the foot of Eighteenth Street, 
marking the probable site of this sanguinary contest, stands 
the beautiful memorial monument, a representation of the 
saving of Mrs. Helm by Black Partridge. Close at hand 



THE TRAGEDY AT FORT DEARBORN 239 

are palatial residences, while all about are the evidences 
of modern wealth and refinement. Standing there now, 
and dreaming of the past, one can scarcely realize the awful 
scene of that fifteenth of August, 18 12, when this frontier 
tragedy was enacted — when men, women, and little children 
went down to death together beside the unruffled waters 
of the lake. It makes a grim foundation-stone upon which 
to build a mighty city, nor should it be forgotten by the 
citizens in the passing years. 



CHAPTER XVII 

ILLINOIS IN WAR OF 1812 

SANGUINARY and ominous in Illinois history as was 
the opening of the War of 18 12, the events following 
were far less dramatic. At that time constituting the far 
frontier, sparsely settled in its southern portion, the re- 
mainder of it a mere wilderness, Illinois remained untouched 
by the main forces of both sides. Indian fighting and 
massacre, with constant alarm along the border, was the 
portion borne by Illinois settlers, and while their Eastern 
comrades were battling manfully along the coast, and amid 
the snows of Canada, or earning the plaudits of the world 
upon the sea, the hardy frontiersmen of the Ohio and the 
Mississippi were struggling to hold their own against a sav- 
age, skulking, relentless foe. 

The beginning was prompt, for immediately following 
the massacre at Chicago, British representatives descended 
the Mississippi River as far as Rock Island, and making 
that their headquarters, began distributing loads of goods as 
presents among the Indians, the special agent employed 
being one Girty. To clear the West of such enemies and re- 
venge the Fort Dearborn disaster, two thousand volunteers 
assembled at Louisville, Kentucky, under command of Gen- 
eral Hopkins. October 14, 18 12, this little army crossed the 
Wabash near Vincennes, and began its march over the 
prairies of Illinois. It was an ill-disciplined body of volun- 
teers. The country traversed abounded with wild game, 
and no orders issued by the officers could prevent the men 
from constantly firing. Their insubordination increased 
with the difficulties of the march. In this manner they 

240 



ILLINOIS IN WAR OF 1812 241 

succeeded in getting some eighty or ninety miles within 
the Indian country, when they encountered a large prairie 
fire, and became at once frantically alarmed for their own 
safety. In spite of the remonstrance of their General and 
the efforts of their officers, they at once turned about and 
returned to their homes, without so much as striking a blow, 
or even coming within sight of the enemy. This constituted 
one of the most ignominious failures recorded in Western 
history. 

Meanwhile other movements were being planned else- 
where. Governor Edwards collected a body of Illinois 
frontiersmen, three hundred and fifty strong, at Camp 
Russell, near the site of Edwardsville, in Madison County, 
then the most advanced of the border settlements. These 
were organized as mounted riflemen, and were soon reen- 
forced by Colonel Russell with three companies of United 
States Rangers. These troops moved almost directly north 
toward the Illinois River, expecting to cooperate with Hop- 
kins's column, then reported as advancing from the East. 
Disappointed at the retreat of the latter, Edwards's men 
nevertheless persevered in their enterprise, and succeeded 
in destroying one of the Indian towns, pursuing the fright- 
ened savages into a swamp, and killing about twenty of 
them. The whites, who were the assailants, had but one 
slightly wounded. Their subsequent retreat to the protec- 
tion of the settlements, however, was reported as being 
extremely rapid. 

Early in the year 18 13, the country was placed in such 
state of defence as was possible with so sparse a population. 
Block-house stations and stockade forts were repaired along 
the entire frontier, and the more remote settlers and feebler 
garrisons were removed to the better-defended settlements. 
New companies of rangers were organized, and so distrib- 
uted as to patrol the frontier thoroughly. From the present 
Alton to Kaskaskia, twenty-two family forts were scattered 



242 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

along, yet even this was insufficient to keep out all Indian 
marauding parties. Breaking through these lines of guard, 
savages fell upon the family of a Mr. Lively, living four 
miles southeast of Covington, in the present Washington 
County, and slev^ four. The bodies of the two women were 
shockingly mangled ; a little boy of seven years was borne 
away from the house, and his head severed from his body. 
The body of Mr. Lively was also mutilated. A son, 
and a stranger who was stopping there, were out on the 
prairie in quest of their horses, and from a distance wit- 
nessed the attack on the house. During their retreat to 
the nearest settlement, they made camp in a grove six miles 
southeast of Fayetteville, along the banks of the Kaskaskia 
River, which perpetuates the name of the murdered family. 
Captain Bond's company of Rangers at once took up the 
pursuit, but as the Indians had had four days' start, they 
easily escaped. On the banks of the Kaskaskia, near the 
present town of Carlyle, a Mr. Young and a minister named 
McLean had a desperate encounter with a party of savages. 
Mr. Young and both horses were killed, and McLean, who 
was unarmed, escaped by plunging into the river and swim- 
ming to the other shore. Several murders were committed 
on Cache River, in the present Alexander County. On the 
Wabash, thirty miles above Vincennes, near Fort Lamotte, 
the wife of a Mr. Houston and four children were killed. 
On a small prairie, two or three miles from the present town 
of Albion, in Edwards County, a settler named Boltenhouse 
was slain. The prairie on which he lived still bears his 
name. 

Meanwhile another expedition northward was projected. 
Large numbers of hostile Indians were known to be gathered 
in the neighborhood of the Peoria Lake, whence marauding 
parties were despatched to harass the exposed settlements 
of both Illinois and Missouri. A joint expedition from 
these two sections was therefore organized to penetrate this 



ILLINOIS IN WAR OF 1812 243 

Indian stronghold and break it up. Some nine hundred 
men were collected, and General Howard, of the United 
States Army, given command. The Illinois troops ren- 
dezvoused at Camp Russell, and marched up the Mississippi 
by companies, as far as the Illinois, which they crossed 
some two or three miles above its mouth. The movement 
was slow ; in Calhoun County, attracted by bee-trees, 
several rangers wandered away from the main column and 
got into a skirmish with Indians, but escaped with no 
more serious injury than the smashing of a gun-stock by a 
bullet. Meanwhile, the Missourians marched a hundred 
miles north on the west side of the Mississippi to Fort Madi- 
son, where they swam the river, mounted naked on their 
horses, while their clothing was rafted across on a platform 
upborne by two canoes. This latter force was under com- 
mand of Colonel McNair, afterwards Governor of Missouri. 
The troops, uniting together, continued their march up 
the Mississippi. Near the site of Quincy, they passed a 
recently deserted Indian village, which apparently had 
contained not far from a thousand Sac warriors. Reaching 
a point called Two Rivers, they struck out directly eastward, 
across the open prairies, toward the Illinois, which they 
reached near the mouth of Spoon River. Here their pro- 
visions boat joined them, and took on board the sick. The 
slow march was continued up the banks of the Illinois as 
far as Peoria, where there was a small stockade, probably 
built on the bluff near the straits, in charge of Captain 
Nicholas, of the United States Army. Two days before, 
the Indians had made an attack here, but had been repulsed. 
All the way along since leaving the Mississippi, the troops 
had crossed fresh trails, from which they inferred that the 
savages, alarmed at their advance, were fleeing northward. 
Yet at no time did they obtain sight of any hostiles. 

The invading army was marched up the lake as far as 
Gomo's village, on the site of Chillicothe, but found the 



244 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

enemy already flown. The deserted village was reduced 
to ashes, and the troops began retracing their steps. At 
the outlet of the lake, where Peoria is situated, they remained 
in camp several weeks, building Fort Clark. Major Christy, 
with two fortified keel-boats, was despatched up the river 
as far as the rapids, while Major Boone was sent up Spoon 
River to scour the country toward the valley of the Rock. 
Neither saw anything of the enemy, except deserted villages. 
The army then returned by direct trail to Camp Russell, 
where it was disbanded. This campaign, although bloodless, 
was well conducted, and was of great benefit to the frontier, 
which was, in consequence, spared from Indian raids during 
all of the following Winter. 

But 1814 opened with horrible Indian atrocities. Our 
naval victories on Lake Erie, the recovery of Detroit, together 
with the defeat of the British at the battle of the Thames, 
where Tecumseh fell, caused the savages to retreat from 
Canada and concentrate in large numbers along the upper 
banks of the Mississippi, whence marauding parties swept 
swiftly down upon the exposed Illinois settlements. Space 
can be taken to mention but a very few of the well authen- 
ticated incidents that occurred at this time, as reported 
by Davidson and Stuve and Ford and Reynolds. In July, 
a band of savages, raiding the Wood River settlements, 
six miles east of the present Alton, massacred a Mrs. Reagan 
with her six children. The husband and father, being 
absent at the time, was the first to discover the slaughter. 
Reaching home at nightfall and opening the door of his 
cabin, he stepped into the blood of his loved family and 
beheld their stark and mangled remains. Captain Samuel 
Whiteside, with his company of Rangers, at once took up 
pursuit, following the savages closely as far as the Sangamon, 
where all succeeded in escaping, amid a dense thicket, 
excepting the chief, who was shot dead out of a tree-top. 
At his belt was dangling the scalp of Mrs. Reagan. In the 



ILLINOIS IN WAR OF 1812 245 

western part of Clinton County, where the Ohio and Missis- 
sippi Railroad now crosses a stream, Jesse Bailes and wife 
were out one Sunday evening, looking for some stray stock in 
the creek bottom. The dogs baying at a thicket, it was sup- 
posed the fugitives were found, but on approaching closer 
they were fired upon by Indians concealed within. Mrs. 
Bailes was shot down, and died shortly after. In August, 
while a company of Captain Short's Rangers were encamped 
at the Lively cabin, they discovered a trail which, being fol- 
lowed, led to the starting up of a party of seven Indians with 
fourteen stolen horses. Following these, a skirmish resulted 
in which the whites were worsted, one man being wounded, 
another saved from death by a twist of tobacco in his pocket, 
and a horse killed. William Stout made a swift ride to 
camp for reenforcements. Captain Short, with thirty men, 
at once started on the trail, following it all night, and the 
next morning overtook the savages on a fork of the Little 
Wabash. On discovering the whites, the Indians at once 
prepared for battle, assured, no doubt, by their former 
victory, and not realizing the force opposing them. They 
were soon surrounded, and upon discovering their situation, 
sang their death-songs, shouted defiance, and fought bravely 
to the end. All were killed. The only white man who fell 
was William O'Neal. 

On August 21, 1 8 14, occurred the most desperate single- 
handed combat ever fought on the soil of Illinois. A little 
fort, or block-house, had been erected about twenty miles 
from Vandalia, and some eight miles south of the present 
town of Greenville. It was considered an important point, 
and Lieutenant Journey and eleven men were stationed there 
as garrison. Governor Reynolds's account of what occurred 
there is as follows: 

" Among these Rangers was Tom Higgins, a young fellow of 
twenty-five, of muscular and compact build, not tall, but strong 
and active. Discovering Indian signs near the fort, the company 



246 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

early the next morning started out to investigate. They had not 
gone far when they were fired upon from ambush by a much larger 
party. At this first fire, the commander, Journey, and three men 
fell. Six immediately retreated toward the fort, but Higgins 
stopped "■ to have another pull at the red-skins,' and taking deliber- 
ate aim at an approaching savage, shot him down. Higgins's horse 
had been wounded, he supposed mortally ; but coming to, he was 
about to effect his escape when he heard the familiar voice of a 
comrade named Burgess calling to him from the long grass, * Tom, 
don't leave me ! ' Higgins told him to come along, but Burgess 
replied that his leg was smashed, so that he could not move. 
Higgins immediately dismounted ; but in attempting to raise the 
wounded man on the horse, the animal took fright and ran off, 
leaving them both behind. ' This is too bad,' said Higgins, ' but 
don't fear ; move off as well as you can, and I '11 stay behind and 
keep back the Indians. Get into the tall grass, and crawl as near 
the ground as possible.' Burgess did so, and succeeded in thus 
getting away unobserved. 

"It would have been much easier and safer for Higgins to 
follow the same plan, but believing if he did so it would endanger 
his friend, the gallant fellow chose a different direction, endeavor- 
ing to conceal himself within a thicket. A moment later, he 
discovered a stout savage near by, with two others approaching. 
He immediately started for a small ravine, hoping thus to separate 
the party, and permit him to fight them one at a time. In this 
attempt at retreat, he was horrified to find one of his legs fail him, 
he having been wounded in the first encounter, without before 
realizing it. The larger of the pursuing Indians pressing him 
closely, Higgins endeavored to get a shot at him, but the wily 
savage at once halted, and danced about so it was impossible to 
obtain sure aim. He then resolved to take his chances, and permit 
the Indian to have the first shot. The savage raised his rifle, and 
Higgins, intently watching the fellow's eye, wheeled suddenly as he 
pulled the trigger, and received the ball in his thigh. He fell to the 
ground, staggered to his feet again, receiving the fire of the two 
others, and once more fell, this time severely wounded. The 
Indians, now feeling certain of their victim, flung aside their empty 
guns, and rushed eagerly toward him, spears and knives in hand. 



ILLINOIS IN WAR OF 1812 247 

Lying there almost helpless on the ground, the wounded man suc- 
ceeded for a short time in holding them back by aiming first at one 
and then another as they approached. As he did not fire, the 
heavier Indian came to the conclusion his gun must be empty, and 
was advancing boldly when Higgins shot, and the savage fell dead. 

''It was by now a most desperate situation. The undaunted 
Ranger lay helpless on the ground, his gun empty, and four bullets 
in his body. About him circled two Indians unharmed, while a 
large party of others were in a ravine only a few steps away. Yet 
even then Higgins did not despair, and when the two Indians rushed 
upon him, raising the war-whoop as they came, a fierce and bloody 
conflict ensued. They inflicted upon him numerous flesh-wounds, 
but, fortunately, none of these were deep, as their spears were only 
thin poles, hastily prepared for the occasion, and bent whenever 
they struck a rib or muscle. At last one of the savages flung his 
tomahawk, which struck Higgins on the cheek, severing his ear, 
laying bare his skull to the back of his head, and stretching him 
out upon the prairie. Again the two Indians rushed at him, but 
the Ranger kept them ofF with his feet. Getting hold of one of 
their spears, the Indian, in attempting to pull it from him, raised 
Higgins up from the ground, when with one blow of his rifle he 
dashed out the savage's brains, but broke his gun, the barrel only 
remaining in his hand. The other Indian now attempted to stab 
the exhausted man with his knife, but Higgins succeeded in warding 
ofF the blows, and the savage gradually fell back from before the 
glare of his untamed eye, evidently seeking to reach the spot where 
his discarded rifle was lying. Higgins knew that if the fellow once 
recovered that, his case would be hopeless. Drawing his hunting- 
knife, and summoning every remaining power to his aid, he stag- 
gered forward and closed with his foe. A most desperate struggle 
followed, during which deep gashes were inflicted on both sides. 
Faint and completely exhausted by loss of blood, the battling 
Ranger was no longer a match for his adversary, who succeeded in 
throwing him off^, and at once started for his rifle. To add to his 
despair, the main body of Indians could now be seen advancing 
toward him from out the ravine, and Higgins gave himself up for 
lost. 

" Almost the whole of this unequal contest had been witnessed 



248 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

from the fort. But, not knowing how many Indians were in the 
party, the little garrison were fearful of venturing forth in rescue. 
At this moment Mrs. Pursley, the wife of one of the Rangers, 
urged them to make the attempt, but failed to get 'the men to 
comply. Exasperated at their refusal, she taunted them with 
cowardice, snatched her husband's rifle from out his hand, and 
declaring that so fine a fellow as Tom Higgins should not be lost 
for want of help, mounted a horse and rode out alone. The 
Rangers, being thus shamed galloped hastily after her, reached the 
spot where Higgins had fallen and fainted, and, before the main 
body of Indians came up, succeeded in bearing their wounded 
companion in safety to the fort. For several days his life was 
despaired of. In the absence of a surgeon, they extracted two of 
the balls, and a third Higgins subsequently, with his usual hardi- 
hood, cut out himself with a razor. The fourth he carried with 
him to his grave. Open-hearted, generous, and brave, this noble 
specimen of borderman finally recovered, and survived to a great 
age, honored and respected by all who knew him." 

During this same year on the waters of the Mississippi, 
just above Rock Island, occurred one of the most gallant ac- 
tions recorded in the annals of the West, or, indeed, in the 
entire history of warfare. General Howard, who still re- 
mained in military command of this department, desired 
to strengthen a small garrison then stationed at Prairie du 
Chien, in what is now Wisconsin. With this purpose in 
mind, he despatched reenforcements to the number of one 
hundred and eight men, under command of Lieutenant 
Campbell of the regular army, in three keel-boats, up the 
river. Of this force, sixty-six men were Illinois Rangers 
under Captains Stephen Rector and Riggs, who occupied 
two of the boats. The remainder of the party were with 
Campbell in the third boat. Arriving at Rock Island, they 
remained there unmolested for one night, camping near the 
foot of the island, but the next day, at the bottom of the 
rapids just above, great numbers of the Sac and Fox Indians 
came out in their canoes to the boats, the savages making 



73 

W 
en 

W 

> 

-o 

W 

n 

H 
O 

n 
> 

■-d 
W 
W 

r 



> 
z 




ILLINOIS IN WAR OF 1812 249 

many professions of friendship. Several of the French 
boatmen, who were employed at the paddles, were known 
to these Indians, and well liked. The visitors endeavored 
to warn these that there was danger ahead, by squeezing 
their hands with a pull down the river, thus plainly indicat- 
ing that it would be well for them to leave in that direction. 
Believing an attack on the flotilla was planned, several of 
these Frenchmen spoke to Lieutenant Campbell in warning, 
but, feeling confident in the number of his force, and not 
being greatly accustomed to Indian warfare, that officer 
disregarded these indefinite suspicions, and ordered the 
savages to leave, commanding the boats to press forward 
against the swift current. The sutler's and contractor's 
barges, with the two boats containing the Illinois Rangers, 
succeeded in working safely past the more dangerous rapids, 
and had arrived at a point some two miles ahead of the others, 
when Campbell's barge was suddenly struck by a fierce gale 
of wind tearing down from the west, across the wide waters, 
so strong as to force it almost helpless against a small island 
which lay not far from the Illinois shore. Believing it would 
prove safer to remain sheltered there until the really danger- 
ous wind-storm abated, he immediately stationed sentinels 
at the edge of the wood, while some of the men went ashore 
to cook breakfast. Scarcely had the fires been lighted under 
the camp-kettles, when a large body of Indians, under com- 
mand of Black Hawk, who had been lying concealed along 
the main shore, waiting some such opportunity, commenced 
a fierce attack. Springing into a number of canoes made 
ready for just such an emergency, the hordes of savages 
passed rapidly across the narrow water-way between the 
mainland and the island, and, giving vent to the war-whoop, 
rushed out of the forest upon the few disembarked men, 
driving them on a run back to the protection of the barge. 
The surprise was complete, several falling before they could 
rejoin their companions. Immediately the battle burst 



250 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

forth in fury, a brisk fire of musketry being exchanged 
between the few regulars partially protected aboard the 
stranded barge and the hordes of Indians who had immedi- 
ately taken shelter behind the trees on the island. Mean- 
while, Captains Rector and Riggs, ahead with their boats, 
which were tossing on the storm-lashed river, seeing the 
smoke of battle and hearing the distant report of guns, en- 
deavored to return, but so strong was the fierce gale which 
buffeted them, that Riggs's boat became utterly unmanage- 
able, and finally stranded helplessly on the rapids. Rector, 
endeavoring to avoid a similar disaster, which seemed inev- 
itable, let go his anchor. The anxious Rangers, however, 
were by this time within long range of the scene of action, 
and they at once opened with their rifles on the distant sav- 
ages, forcing them to fall backward somewhat from the 
shore. 

In this way the unequal conflict raged for considerable 
time, the exposed occupants of the stranded barge suffering 
severely, but totally unable to get away from the bank. 
Finally, with numerous wounded and several dead on board, 
among whom Campbell himself was very badly hurt, defens- 
ive firing had almost ceased, when the boat was discovered 
to be on fire. Far out in the stream, the distant Rangers saw 
the smoke and understood the meaning. It was at this 
desperate juncture when Stephen Rector and his gallant 
crew of Illinoisans, comprehending the horrible situation 
of their helpless comrades, performed as cool and heroic a 
deed as ever imperilled the life of man. Deliberately, in the 
teeth of that howling gale, in full view of hundreds of infu- 
riated savages lining the near-by shore, and within easy 
range of their deadly rifles, these frontier heroes raised 
their anchor, lightened their barge by casting overboard 
nearly all their stock of provisions, and then guided it with 
the utmost labor and amid tremendous danger down that 
madly racing current, actually forcing it to the windward of 



ILLINOIS IN WAR OF 1812 251 

the burning barge and into the very blaze of the Indian 
guns. Holding it there, in spite of the galling fire fairly 
scorching their faces, these men coolly rescued the survivors, 
removing v^ounded, dying, and all to the security of their 
ov^^n vessel, and then sv^ept w^ith them in safety dov^n the 
river. It was as heroic a deed of daring as w^as ever per- 
formed in war. The island was later named for Campbell, 
but with Captain Rector and his Illinois Rangers remains 
the true glory of the action. The manner in which it was 
accomplished only serves to illustrate the desperate need for 
haste, and the quick response of brave minds, in moments of 
extreme peril. The provisions once cast overboard, the 
crew, largely composed of experienced French boatmen, at 
once leaped into the swirling water on the windward side of 
the heavy barge, which brought the boat between them and 
the direct fire of the enemy. Partially sheltered in this 
manner, they w^ere enabled to guide their heavy boat, in 
spite of the raging storm beating against them, until it rested 
close beside the disabled barge, and to hold it there securely 
until the removal had been effected, when they hauled it 
against the wind far enough out into the wide stream to be 
safe. The loss suffered during this brisk action was twenty- 
five: nine killed, — four Rangers, three regulars, one woman, 
and one child, — sixteen wounded, including Lieutenant 
Campbell and Dr. Stewart, both severely. Rector's boat 
was now uncomfortably crowded for the wounded, but the 
force on board being large, they rowed night and day until 
St. Louis was reached. Riggs, with his company in the 
other boat, exchanged shots with the Indians all day, but 
at night succeeded in slipping past, and finally arrived at 
St. Louis without the loss of a man. 

A little later, another expedition was despatched by boat 
to the upper Mississippi, where British agents continued 
active among the Indians. It was fitted out at Cape au Gris, 
an old French hamlet on the left bank of the river, a little 



252 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

above the mouth of the Illinois. It consisted of three hun- 
dred and thirty-four effective men, — forty regulars, the re- 
mainder rangers and volunteers, — and was under command 
of Major Zachary Taylor, afterwards President of the United 
States. Nelson Rector and Samuel Whiteside were in 
command of the boats containing the Illinois troops. This 
force passed Rock Island, as well as the rapids above, without 
molestation, or seeing anything of the enemy. But about 
this time they learned from scouts sent ashore that the entire 
country around them swarmed with hostile Indians, while 
a number of English were there in command, having a de- 
tachment of regulars, and possessing artillery. Feeling it 
unsafe to proceed, the three boats in advance turned about, 
and began the descent of the rapids, seeking to rejoin the 
others below. These were commanded by Rector, White- 
side, and Hempstead ; and no sooner had they rounded the 
foot of the island before they were at once plunged into a 
severe fight, large numbers of the concealed enemy pouring 
heavy volleys into them from all along the shore. A little 
way above the mouth of Rock River, and not far from some 
small islands covered with willows, which have since disap- 
peared. Major Taylor finally succeeded in anchoring all of 
his flotilla of boats close together. During the darkness of 
the following night, the English planted a battery of six 
pieces close to the water's edge, but well concealed behind 
underbrush, hoping thus to sink and disable the frail boats 
out in the stream, while remaining themselves beyond rifle 
range. Indians in large numbers were posted in conceal- 
ment upon the willow-islands for the purpose of butchering 
any who might escape the cannonading and reach their 
shelter alive. But Taylor's prompt action frustrated this 
plan. Almost at break of day he ordered his entire force, 
with the exception of only twenty boatmen left as a guard on 
each vessel, to the upper island for the purpose of dislodg- 
ing the enemy, whom he believed to be posted there in con- 



ILLINOIS IN WAR OF 1812 253 

siderable force. It was accomplished with great gallantry, 
the island thoroughly scoured, a number of the skulking 
Indians killed, and the remainder driven to the shelter of 
the smaller island below. Meanwhile the British cannon 
opened fiercely upon the fleet, the shots piercing the sides of 
many of the exposed vessels, and causing several to leak 
badly. As soon as possible, the men engaged on shore 
rushed back, and the boats were promptly dropped down 
stream beyond range of the artillery. Captain Rector was 
next ordered to take his company of Rangers, and clear out 
the savages hiding on the lower and smaller island. He at- 
tempted it, forcing the Indians back among the willows, but 
they, being heavily reenforced from the mainland, charged 
in turn and hurled his men back upon the open sand-beach, 
where they were exposed to a galling fire. At this time, 
through some misunderstanding among the officers, the 
boats out in the stream began to retreat down the river. 
Rector attempted to follow, but his barge grounded when 
just ofi^ shore, and the savages with wild yells of triumph 
surged madly about them. A most desperate hand-to-hand 
fight followed, the Rangers using their clubbed guns and 
hunting-knives to beat back their fierce assailants. For 
a moment it looked as if all must perish, but Whiteside, 
with his Illinoisans, hurried to their rescue, driving back 
the savages until the Rangers could be released from so 
perilous a position. Taylor immediately returned south- 
ward, and reported his loss as eleven men wounded, of whom 
three afterwards died. 

This failure practically ended all effort to open the upper 
Mississippi River to American occupancy. The enemy re- 
mained in undisputed possession of the entire country 
north of the Illinois River, nor was there any force in the 
West sufficiently strong to drive them out. With the ap- 
proach of Winter, however, Indian depredations almost 
wholly ceased along the frontier, and the Peace of Ghent, 
signed December 24, 18 14, closed the war. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE STRUGGLE WITH BLACK HAWK 

THE fifteen years following the close of our second war 
with England was a time of grateful peace within the 
Illinois borders, and was distinguished by a large influx of 
immigration from the East. Settlers came to the new 
country both by way of the rivers and lakes, the Northern 
States beginning for the first time to be well represented, 
and yielding a new complexion to the growing settlements. 
More chose sites for farms on the open prairies, and beyond 
the main water-courses, while little towns sprang up, as 
if by magic, in midst of the surrounding wilderness. Nu- 
merous colonies, many from New England, some from 
across the sea, populated in a day entire districts. The 
outer fringe of white settlement swept swiftly northward and 
westward, so that by 1831, while many counties yet remained 
unorganized, there were few, indeed, utterly devoid of per- 
manent white occupants. North and west of the Illinois 
River, however, the country remained very sparsely settled, 
the few scattered villages far between, the sole means of 
communication those dim trails leading across the unbroken 
prairies and through the dark woods. Indians still hunted 
wild game throughout nearly all of this region, but were be- 
ing steadily pressed backward into narrower confines by the 
advance of white invaders. 

In the lead regions of the far Northwest were several 
trading-posts and small mining settlements. A coach- 
road, known as " Kellogg's Trail," first opened in 1827, 
connected Galena with Peoria, and was largely travelled. 
Here and there along this road were a few scattered settlers, 

254 



THE STRUGGLE mTH BLACK HAIVK 255 

thus located by Dr. Thwaites: "Old Man" Kellogg at 
Kellogg's Grove, Winter on Apple River, John Dixon at 
Dixon's Ferry on Rock River, "Dad Joe" at Dad Joe's 
Grove, Henry Thomas on West Bureau Creek, Charles S. 
Boyd at Boyd's Grove, and several others. Between Galena 
and the Illinois River, the most important settlement M^as on 
Bureau Creek at Bulbona, where some thirty families were 
gathered. There were also small collections of cabins at 
Peru, La Salle, South Ottawa, Newark, and Holderman's 
Grove, with a cluster of eight or ten along Indian Creek. 
Chicago, at this date, contained, perhaps, three hundred 
people, who were housed in primitive cabins nestled beneath 
the shadow of Fort Dearborn. Scattered between these 
settlements were a few widely separated farms, squatters 
being far more numerous than homesteaders. Such is a 
brief description of Northern Illinois in the year 1831. 

Under these conditions, trouble was inevitable, and it 
finally broke forth in fierce conflict with the closely allied 
tribes of the Sacs and Foxes, whose seat of power was within 
the present county of Rock Island. As early as 1804, Gen- 
eral Harrison negotiated a treaty with these Indians, whereby 
they ceded all their claims east of the Mississippi River to 
the United States, but in this they reserved a right to both 
reside and hunt thereon until the land should be actually 
sold for white settlement. This treaty was again ratified 
in 1822, in a "full council" held at Fort Armstrong, on Rock 
Island. About 1828 the country immediately around the 
mouth of Rock River was surveyed and sold, and the 
next year was taken possession of by American families. 
At this time, in accordance with the terms of these treaties, 
the United States gave due notice to the Indians residing 
there to leave the territory. Keokuk, then chief of the Sacs, 
at once withdrew across the Mississippi, accompanied by the 
majority of both allied tribes. Meanwhile, Black Hawk, a 
man then sixty years of age, and long a pensioner of the 



256 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

British government, becoming dissatisfied, endeavored to 
rally all the Western Indians into a confederation w^ith which 
to resist further encroachments of the whites. His success 
was only partial, yet he succeeded in gathering about him 
most of the young and restless of the two tribes, over whom 
he exercised a species of chieftainship, warranted by his long 
leadership in war. 

In 1830, a sort of informal arrangement seems to have 
been agreed upon between the few Americans who had 
already purchased and occupied land near the mouth of 
Rock River, and those Indians still remaining in the neigh- 
borhood, by which the latter were to continue undisturbed 
cultivating their old fields. This, of course, added nothing 
to the legal rights of the savages, yet undoubtedly encour- 
aged them greatly in their schemes for resisting final removal. 
With headquarters on the high bluff, since known as Black 
Hawk's Watch Tower, they cultivated in a feeble way a 
portion of the rich valley lying below. Their enclosures 
consisted of stakes stuck in the ground, having small poles 
tied with strips of bark between. During the Summer and 
Fall the Indians appeared sullen toward their white neigh- 
bors, but did no damage, other than to allow their loose 
horses to range at will throughout the unprotected corn- 
fields. After the winter hunt was over, the Indians again 
collected in a body at their old camp, under the immediate 
guidance of Black Hawk, and at once began a series of petty 
depredations along the immediate frontier, which greatly 
exasperated the widely scattered settlers, who, from lack of 
numbers, were unable to retaliate. Black Hawk, in these 
proceedings, exhibited his shrewd cunning, for he had evi- 
dently instructed his party to commit all injury possible to 
property, while never attacking or killing any of the whites. 
His policy, apparently, and judged from results, was to 
provoke war, but to compel the Americans to take the first 
openly hostile step, and thus enable him to call upon his 



THE STRUGGLE IVITH BLACK HAWK 257 

Indian allies among other tribes for help in defence of 
ancient rights, and the "graves of their fathers." 

The stories of these numerous depredations and midnight 
raids were quickly spread throughout the near-by settle- 
ments, creating much excitement and alarm ; many fled the 
country, while others gathered together for defence. Black 
Hawk, at this time, had about five hundred well-trained 
Indian warriors under his immediate command. They 
possessed numerous horses, and were well armed ; every 
report reaching the State officials bore evidence to their 
hostile purposes. In consequence. Governor Reynolds can- 
not be said to have acted hastily or improperly, when, with 
all these facts before him, on the 27th of May, 1831, he 
issued a call for volunteers to guard the frontier, and re- 
quested of General Gaines the assistance of regular troops 
to expel the invaders from Illinois. Legally, and under 
the terms of a treaty repeatedly ratified, the State was 
practically being invaded by a hostile band of savages, under 
the leadership of an openly avowed enemy of the United 
States. 

In answer to this call for volunteers, the settlements made 
quick response, the entire border throbbing with a desire to 
repay in kind many a real or fancied injury. More than six- 
teen hundred men, most of them on horseback, were in 
rendezvous at Beardstown by the 22d of June. Meanwhile, 
all over the region threatened with trouble, stockade forts were 
hastily erected, the scattered inhabitants forming themselves 
into garrisons. Among those in Illinois, the more important 
were situated at Galena, Apple River, Kellogg's Grove, Buf- 
falo Grove, Dixon's, South Ottawa, Wilburn (about opposite 
the present Peru ), West Bureau, Hennepin, and Peoria. 
Fort Armstrong, on Rock Island, became a busy scene, ten 
companies of regular troops being at once ordered there, 
with large quantities of war equipment. General Atkinson, 
widely and favorably known to the Indians as " White 



258 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Beaver," was in command at this post, and acted promptly, 
despatching stern orders to the invading Sacs and Foxes to 
w^ithdravv at once from Illinois territory. To these Black 
Hawk, rendered confident by the advice of his prophet, 
who assured him success in the struggle, returned defiant 
answers, meanwhile travelling up Rock River accompanied 
by his braves, as far as Prophetstown, in what is now White- 
side County, but attempting no depredations on the way. 
The very act of advance, however, could not be construed 
in any other way than a challenge to conflict. 

To temporize longer with the savages was only to invite 
additional danger to the exposed settlements. A second 
gathering of volunteers at Beardstown was hastily organized 
into four regiments, under command of Colonels John 
Thomas, Jacob Fry, A. B. Dewitt, and Samuel M. Thomp- 
son. A scouting company under Major James D. Henry, and 
two odd battalions, commanded by Majors James and Long, 
were also in the field. In command over all was Brigadier- 
General Samuel Whiteside, who had previously won honors 
as an efficient Indian fighter. Accompanied by Governor 
Reynolds in person, with rank as Major-General, this little 
army made their slow way to Fort Armstrong, where they 
were duly mustered in as United States Volunteers. Lieu- 
tenant Robert Anderson, later the gallant defender of Fort 
Sumter, became inspector-general of the Illinois troops. 

May 9, 1832, this combined force of regulars and vol- 
unteers took up Black Hawk's trail clearly marked along 
the east bank of Rock River. Whiteside, with his mounted 
frontiersmen, led the way on land, while Atkinson followed 
closely with the main body in boats, transporting provisions, 
cannon, and baggage. The command of the latter consisted 
of three hundred volunteer infantry, and four hundred reg- 
ulars, these last under Colonel Zachary Taylor, afterwards 
President of the United States. The travelling proved de- 
cidedly bad, both by water and land. For many days the 



THE STR UGGLE WITH BLACK HAWK 259 

toiling troops were drenched to the skin, being almost con- 
stantly swept by pelting rains. The trail became a quag- 
mire, and the river a torrent. Whiteside, however, was 
able to outdistance Atkinson in the advance. He reached 
Prophetstown, only to find it completely deserted of Indians. 
But, the signs of their departure being fresh, he pushed 
forward after them as far as Dixon's. Here his force was 
augmented by two additional battalions, under Majors 
Stillman and Bailey, which had been organized in that upper 
country. Not yet being regularly sworn into United States 
service, these men demanded to be employed as scouts, or 
on detached service, and were finally, on the 13th, sent ahead 
of the slowly advancing column under Stillman's command, 
as Whiteside was anxious to use them in any manner possible, 
thus relieving his better-disciplined force. 

Black Hawk, meanwhile, after tarrying a week at Proph- 
etstown in persistent but vain council with the assembled 
Winnebagoes, from whom he gained little encouragement, 
had pushed on, accompanied by his motley following, to the 
mouth of Sycamore Creek, in Ogle County. Here, in coun- 
cil with the Pottawattomies, his schemes of a great Indian 
alliance were again defeated through the personal influence 
of the chief Shaubena, who remained an avowed friend of 
the whites. Utterly discouraged by this second rebuff, 
although a few hot-heads had joined him, the Sauk 
leader was now ready to meet any overtures of peace which 
might have been made him by the whites, but, unfortunately, 
in that very moment of readiness, circumstances suddenly 
arose which made the continuation of war inevitable. 
Major Stillman's force of undisciplined scouts had made 
unsuspecting camp within a clump of open timber only 
three miles southwest of where the Indians were still 
holding council; about them on every side stretched the 
open, undulating prairie. Black Hawk learned of the near 
presence of these troops about sunset. He had with him at 



26o HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

that time only some forty or fifty warriors, — a mere personal 
body-guard, — the remainder of his band, together with the 
hostile faction of the Pottawattomies, being encamped on the 
Kiskwaukee, some seven miles distant. Supposing these 
advancing soldiers to be under command of Atkinson, whom 
he knew well, he sent forward three of his young men to 
open parley with them, and bearing an offer to meet with 
" White Beaver " in council. The Sauk chief afterwards 
stated that his sole purpose in this was the seeking for terms 
of peace. 

That which followed on the part of the whites was full of 
disgrace and humiliation to the entire border, and remains 
a blot on frontier history. Stillman's troopers, totally undis- 
ciplined, and, as many report, in liquor, were busily making 
camp, when the three Indian flag-of-truce bearers suddenly 
appeared on the summit of a little prairie knoll nearly a mile 
distant. Instantly a yelling mob of excited whites, without 
waiting any command, dashed out upon them, driving the 
three helpless and surprised savages into the camp amid 
curses, blows, and threats. Black Hawk, in precaution 
against failure, had despatched a small party of five braves 
to watch the reception of his truce-bearers. These were like- 
wise observed by the crazed soldiery, and fiercely charged 
upon by about twenty troopers, who had hastily mounted 
their horses. Two were killed, the other three succeeding 
in escaping to the council grove, where they reported that 
the truce-bearers were also slain by the whites. The old 
Sauk war-chief rose up with indignation, and, determining 
at once to avenge such foul treachery, sallied forth, his little 
party mounted on ponies, to meet the enemy. Even as 
they thus emerged onto the open prairie, Stillman's force, 
over three hundred strong, came rushing toward them like 
an undisciplined mob. The Sauks, withdrawing behind 
a fringe of bushes, remained firm, but at sight of the Indians 
thus making a stand, the troopers came to a sudden 




BLACK HAWK 

FROM AN OLD PORTRAIT 



THE STRUGGLE WITH BLACK HAWK 261 

halt. Instantly, inspired by anger to the performance of 
so desperate a deed, Black Hawk sounded the war-whoop, 
and his little band of savages, scarcely forty all told, sprang 
forward, firing fiercely as they advanced. Without even 
returning the volley, the terrified militia turned and fled. 
All night long, although the Indian pursuit is said to have 
ceased at dark, those frightened volunteers of Stillman's 
plunged wildly onward in their mad retreat, through swamps 
and creeks, for twenty-five miles to Dixon's. Nor did all of 
them pause even there, but kept on to their distant homes, 
alarming the entire border with their wild and fanciful tales 
of Black Hawk's force and savagery. The whites had in 
this unfortunate affair eleven killed. Besides the two scouts, 
and one truce-bearer wantonly murdered, the Indian loss 
remains unknown. 

While the story of this skirmish remains a blot of 
disgrace on the military records of Illinois, one redeem- 
ing incident occurred at Old Man's Creek, a small stream 
rising in Ogle County, and flowing into Rock River. 
It is now known as Stillman's Run. Here Major Perkins, 
Captain Adams, and about fifteen men made a determined 
stand, and by hard hand-to-hand fighting held back 
the savage pursuers until their companions had found 
opportunity to escape. Captain Adams sacrificed his own 
life for this purpose, his body being found the next day 
lying near two Indians he had slain in personal combat. 
Everything pointed to a most desperate struggle. Their 
guns were broken into fragments, and their bodies covered 
with the scars of knife and tomahawk wounds. Major 
Hackleton also had a single-handed fight, but succeeded in 
killing his antagonist and escaped. 

Nevertheless, it was now to be war beyond question, while 
this easy, unexpected victory greatly encouraged Black Hawk 
and his gathering warriors. The abundant stores of pro- 
visions which Stillman left behind were also of much assist- 



262 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

ance in holding his braves together, and encouraging others 
to join his standard of revolt. Realizing that it would not 
be safe to tarry long in so exposed a position, the wily 
savages, after gathering up their spoils, hastily retreated 
northward to the head-waters of the Rock, near Lake 
Koshkonong, across the Wisconsin line, a land of swamps 
and inaccessible hiding-places. Here Black Hawk was 
soon joined by parties of Winnebagoes and Pottawattomies, 
mostly young braves eager for renown, and began immedi- 
ately despatching his raiding parties down into Northern 
Illinois to harass the more exposed settlements with all the 
atrocities of border warfare. 

Meanwhile, Whiteside, with his fourteen hundred men, 
startled by the news of this defeat, advanced to Stillman's 
battle-field, only to discover it deserted of all save the dead. 
The sadly mutilated bodies, disfiguring the prairie, were 
buried with military honors, and on the 19th the entire 
army, now under command of Atkinson, with the exception 
of Stillman's discomfited corps left at Dixon to guard stores, 
began its slow march up the Rock in pursuit of Black Hawk's 
retreating braves. But scarcely were they well out of sight 
when news reached them that Stillman's men had de- 
serted their post at Dixon and returned to their homes. At- 
kinson, with his regulars, hastily turned back to protect the 
exposed stores, leaving Whiteside alone to press forward on 
Black Hawk's trail. But almost immediately the volunteers 
who composed his force, refusing to leave the State, demanded 
their discharge from service. Unable to control them, the 
column was finally turned about, marched to Ottawa and 
the men disbanded, the whole campaign having proved a 
most miserable failure. 

Immediately the path was thus made clear by retreat, 
Black Hawk's eager warriors swarmed down upon the ex- 
posed settlements. The chief led in person the larger di- 
vision, about two hundred strong, and, like unchained fiends 



THE STRUGGLE IVITH BLACK HAWK 263 

thirsting for blood, they swept the entire border. Small 
scalping parties, principally composed of Winnebagoes, coop- 
erated with them, while about a hundred Pottawattomies, 
led by Mike Girty, were guilty of terrible atrocities. While 
these raiders wrought sad havoc also throughout Southern 
Wisconsin, in Illinois they swept unchecked clear to the Illi- 
nois River, and the entire northern half of the State was in a 
tumult of alarm, every settler in peril. Stock was wantonly 
slaughtered, cabins fired, settlements raided, and men, 
women, and children killed in sudden midnight forays. 
Many of the latter were borne away captives. No one 
knew where the fiends would break forth next, or who would 
fall beneath merciless knife and tomahawk. On the 22d 
of May, a party of thirty Pottawattomies and three Sacs, 
under Girty, surprised and slaughtered fifteen men, women, 
and children at the Davis farm, on Indian Creek, twelve 
miles north of Ottawa. Two daughters of William Hall, 
Sylvia and Rachel, were captured, but a month later were 
surrendered to the whites. On the 14th of June, eleven 
Sacs killed five white men on the Pecatonica River, and a 
little later the same band murdered two more a few miles 
east of Galena. They were, however, fiercely pursued by a 
party of volunteers under General Dodge of Wisconsin, 
and, during a hot fight, the entire eleven were killed, the 
whites losing three in the affair. 

About this same time, Captain Stephenson, with a portion 
of his Galena company, unexpectedly came into contact with 
an Indian raiding party somewhere between Apple River 
and Kellogg's Grove. The savages took refuge within a 
clump of trees, and after considerable firing had been ex- 
changed, the Americans charged them three times, but w^ere 
repulsed with the loss of six men killed, and Stephenson seri- 
ously wounded. On June 24, Black Hawk's own party 
made a desperate attack on the Apple River Fort, situated 
fourteen miles east of Galena, and a quarter of a mile north 



264 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

of the present village of Elizabeth. He had with him more 
than a hundred and fifty warriors. Fortunately, word of 
their stealthy approach reached the threatened neighborhood 
in time for the firing of guns as a signal to those engaged on 
various work without. From every direction these flocked 
immediately to the safety of the fort, a log stockade, with 
strong block-houses at the corners, and the heavy gates were 
closed. As soon as the Indians arrived within firing distance, 
the action began with fury. It continued unabated for 
fifteen hours, during which the savages made several attempts 
to burn and storm the fortification. They took possession 
of near-by dwellings in the village, knocked holes through 
the walls, and, thus safely sheltered, poured a galling fire 
upon the besieged. Others devoted themselves to destroying 
property in full view of the garrison. There were only 
twenty-five men inside the fort, but thev fought with desper- 
ate daring, believing death in battle preferable to surrender 
and subsequent butchery. The mothers and children 
united to help, moulding bullets and loading guns, and at 
length the Indians drew off, convinced of their inability to 
capture the place. The white loss was but one man killed ; 
that of the assailants is unknown. 

On their retreat, this band of Black Hawk's very unex- 
pectedly ran into Major Dement's battalion of volunteers, 
one hundred and fifty strong, who were encamped at Kellogg's 
Grove, about nine miles south of the present village of Lena. 
A spirited fight ensued on the open prairie, which finally 
resulted in a stampede of the ill-disciplined American forces, 
until they found shelter within a block-house situated within 
the grove. Here, however, they made a firm stand, and 
succeeded in driving back their fierce assailants and holding 
their position until reenforcements arrived, before which the 
Indians sullenly retired. The whites had five killed, while 
the Indian loss was fifteen. Other skirmishes, but of less 



THE STRUGGLE WITH BLACK HAWK 265 

importance, occurred about this time at Plum River Fort, 
Burr Oak Grove, Sinsinawa Mound, and Blue Mounds. 

Meanwhile neither Governor Reynolds nor the United 
States authorities remained idle. Pursuant to another call, 
two thousand volunteers gathered at Beardstown, June 
ten, while a thousand regulars, under General Winfield 
Scott, were ordered westward. Among these volunteers. 
General Whiteside, previously in command, enlisted as a 
private, while among the three hundred mounted ran- 
gers, as a private, was Abraham Lincoln. In less than 
three weeks after Stillman's defeat, these State troops 
were gathered together at Fort Wilburn, near Peru, and 
made ready for the field. They were divided into three 
brigades, headed by Generals Posey, Alexander, and Henry. 
With Dodge's Rangers, already waiting in the northwest 
to cooperate with them, and the available regulars, the entire 
force numbered nearly four thousand effective men. With 
the scouting battalions kept well in advance, and occasionally 
having brief skirmishes with fleeing raiding parties, the 
main column marched slowly forward up the east bank of 
the Rock, leaving Dixon's for the unknown wilderness beyond 
on the afternoon of June 27. 

On the 30th they crossed the Illinois border, about a 
mile east of the present city of Beloit, following closely the 
fresh trail of the retreating Sauk raiders. Every precaution 
was taken to guard against surprise ; whenever possible, 
the troops being encamped at night within timber and pro- 
tected by hastily erected breastworks. The sentinels were 
frequently fired upon by savages skulking in the darkness, 
but no attempt was made in force to obstruct their progress. 
At the outlet of Lake Koshkonong, which was attained 
July 2, deserted Indian camps were found, with white scalps 
dangling from the tepee-poles. No one in the struggling 
column chanced to be acquainted with the country they were 



266 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

now traversing, while the few Indians captured gave mis- 
leading information, and consequently progress became 
daily more slow and difficult and uncertain. Food was 
so scarce the army had to be divided in order to search after 
provisions. For this purpose. General Henry was de- 
spatched with a considerable detachment in the endeavor to 
reach Fort Winnebago, about eighty miles distant. While 
on the way, learning through his scouts that Black Hawk's 
band was in the immediate vicinity, he promptly took up 
pursuit, sending back word by courier to Atkinson's camp, 
by that time some thirty-five miles distant, of his purpose, 
and requesting reenforcements. Throughout the entire 
volunteer force this news was received with manifestations of 
joy, while every discomfort was instantly forgotten in an 
awakened eagerness to overtake the savages. Filled with 
enthusiasm, the troops pressed sternly forward across a 
country made most difficult for travelling by deep swamps 
and innumerable sink-holes. Frequently the men were 
compelled to dismount, and wade up to their armpits in 
mud and water. At last, on the list, at three o'clock in the 
afternoon, after an advance so rapid that forty horses suc- 
cumbed between the Catfish and the Wisconsin, the eager 
soldiers came finally into contact with the fleeing enemy. 
Skirmishing began at once, until at last the Indians came 
to a final stand within a mile and a half of the river. The 
savages made the first charge, but were repulsed with heavy 
loss, and, after a half-hour of hot firing on both sides, and 
a steady advance by the whites, were driven back to the 
refuge of the high bluffs. Here darkness put an end to the 
fight. This was the battle of Wisconsin Heights, which 
occurred opposite Prairie du Sac. The Indian loss was 
heavy, that of the Americans slight. 

After the battle. Black Hawk loaded a large raft with 
women, children, and old men, and sent it down the Wiscon- 
sin River, hoping that the soldiers on duty at Fort Crawford 



THE STRUGGLE WITH BLACK HAWK 267 

would permit these non-combatants to safely cross the 
Mississippi in peace. He reckoned on a humanity which 
did not exist. Lieutenant Joseph Ritner, with a small body 
of regulars, intercepted these helpless fugitives, and, firing 
on them, killed fifteen men, capturing four men and thirty- 
two women and children. Nearly as many more were 
drowned, while of those who escaped to shore, all but a 
mere handful perished in the wilds. 

During the night following the Wisconsin Heights battle, 
Neapope, who was Black Hawk's chief lieutenant, endeav- 
ored vainly to address the whites from a high eminence, in the 
Winnebago tongue, begging mercy. Unfortunately, no one 
then in the camp understood his language, and he retired, 
feeling that he had been rebuffed. Meanwhile the Indians 
succeeded in crossing the- river, fleeing down the western 
bank. Atkinson, as soon as he could procure sufficient 
provisions, energetically took up the pursuit. By the 28th 
the troops were also across the Wisconsin, all the commands 
united together, and had struck the trail of the fugitives, 
which, trending to the north of west, pointed directly toward 
the distant Mississippi. It was a hard road to travel, but 
the troopers were constantly encouraged to press grimly on 
by the large number of dead Indians found along the way, 
who had perished either of wounds or starvation. Every- 
where were abundant evidences that the fleeing wretches 
were eating the bark of trees, and the flesh of their fagged-out 
ponies. On the first of August, Black Hawk with his 
starving remnant succeeded in reaching the Mississippi, 
about two miles below the mouth of the Bad Axe. Close 
behind them toiled the relentless pursuing troops. 

At this time Black Hawk had no thought except to save 
himself and his people from these relentless pursuers. His 
one remaining hope was to cross the broad river before 
Atkinson and his men could come up. 

Only two or three canoes were discovered along the shore, 



268 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

but with these, and a large raft, hastily constructed, the ex- 
odus was begun. The raft, laden with women and children, 
was despatched, but in mid-stream capsized, and nearly all 
its occupants were drowned. Scarcely had this occurred 
when an army supply-steamer, the "Warrior," suddenly ap- 
peared on the scene. John Throckmorton was captain, and 
he had on board fifteen regular soldiers and six volunteers 
under Lieutenants Kingsbury and Holmes. As soon as this 
steamer appeared, Black Hawk hailed it, requesting that a 
boat be sent ashore, as the fugitives desired to give them- 
selves up. This request was understood plainly, but the 
Captain, apparently fearful of treachery, refused, and, 
instead, ordered Black Hawk to come aboard in one of his 
own canoes. This the chief could not do, as they were then 
filled with fleeing women and children. Immediately upon 
his stating this fact, and refusing to come, those on board 
discharged three rounds of canister-shot into the unsuspecting 
group of Indians huddled on shore. Instantly a fierce fire 
of musketry burst forth on both sides, during which twenty- 
three Indians were killed, one white being wounded. The 
boat then steamed away to Prairie du Chien. 

During the night following, a few more Indians escaped 
across the river. Amid the darkness, even Black Hawk's 
heart failed him, and, accompanied by ten warriors and a 
number of squaws and children, he fled eastward, seeking a 
hiding-place amid the dalles of the Wisconsin. But when 
day dawned, his conscience smitten at thus deserting his 
people in their time of need, the old chief turned back, and 
from a distant bluflP witnessed the tragic scenes of the final 
struggle; for by this time Atkinson and his toiling men 
were upon them. After a hard march, beginning at two 
o'clock in the morning, the head of that remorseless pursuing 
column burst forth from the bottom timber, and came into 
full view of the fugitives. Brigadier-General Henry's com- 
mand was first to come into contact with them. Swinging 



THE STRUGGLE WITH BUCK HAWK 269 

his entire force straight down the face of a steep bluff, and 
dashing recklessly forward on foot, his eager soldiers came 
suddenly face to face with three hundred desperate war- 
riors. A fierce struggle ensued, the savages being steadily 
forced back from tree to tree by relentless bayonets, while 
frightened women and children plunged into the river, seek- 
ing escape, and many of them were drowned. Much of 
the fighting here was hand to hand. In the midst of it, 
Atkinson, with the main body, came up hurriedly, and 
plunged headlong into the melee. The carnage became 
greater than ever. The Indians fought with the desperation 
of despair, and, although weak from hunger, died like war- 
riors. A few escaped, fleeing down a broad slough to a 
willow-island, which the steamer "Warrior," now returned, 
raked from end to end with canister. Henry's and Dodge's 
volunteers also charged it fiercely through mud and water, 
and finally swept completely across it. Some fugitives 
succeeded in swimming the river, but many, attempting it, 
were drowned on the way, or picked off by riflemen, who, 
in their excitement, exhibited no mercy to men or women 
or children. So, after three long, horrible hours of con- 
tinuous slaughter, ended the battle — or shall we call it mas- 
sacre } — of the Bad Axe. One hundred and fifty Indians 
were killed outright, an unknown number drowned, — 
probably fully as many, — and only fifty taken prisoners. 
Perhaps three hundred succeeded in attaining the west 
shore. The loss of the whites was but seventeen killed and 
twelve wounded. No one can consider the incidents of this 
war — its unnecessary beginning, its cruel ending — with- 
out realizing that it is a dishonorable chapter in border 
history and a black blot on Illinois. 

The remainder is soon told. Black Hawk was delivered 
up by the Winnebagoes, among whom he sought refuge, and 
after being held in prison until the early Summer of 1833, 
was finally delivered over to the guardianship of his old rival, 



270 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Keokuk. Feeling this insult keenly, he nursed it bitterly 
through his few remaining years, which were passed on the 
Des Moines River, in Davis County, Iowa. Here he died, 
October 3, 1838, at the age of seventy-one. 

General Winfield Scott, with his Eastern regulars, did 
not arrive on the field to assume command until all fighting 
was over, and nothing remained for him to do but discharge 
the volunteers. Cholera among his troops had detained him 
at Detroit, Chicago, and Rock Island, nearly a fourth of his 
detachment of a thousand men having died of the pestilence. 
Beyond these, the entire American loss in the war was prob- 
ably not to exceed two hundred and fifty. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE MORMONS AT NAUVOO 

IN April, 1840, large numbers of a religious body, known 
as Latter-Day Saints, or Mormons, removed from 
Missouri to Illinois. They had purchased a considerable 
tract of land located on the east bank of the Mississippi, in 
Hancock County. Nowhere along the great river is there a 
more picturesque and attractive spot. The succession of 
terraces ascending from the water until the high land is 
reached, furnish a gradual slope of remarkable beauty ; 
noble groves of tall oaks, interspersed with winding vistas, 
clothe the ground to the summit, from which point the eye 
looks forth over a green, undulating prairie. Near the 
river, in that early day, stood the spacious residence of Dr. 
Isaac Galland, who had combined art with nature in forming 
a most delightful country-seat. On this fine tract of land, 
in 1834, he had laid off the little town of Commerce. This 
land having been sold to Mormon agents, preparations 
were immediately made to build here a great city of their 
faith, which was named Nauvoo, signifying either " peace- 
ful," or " pleasant." 

So well did they succeed in these early plans, that at the 
end of no more than five years the entire scene was changed. 
Nauvoo by that time already contained a population ap- 
proximating fifteen thousand, while accessions were pouring 
in from all parts of the world, and several smaller villages 
and settlements, entirely Mormon as to inhabitants, had been 
started within the limits of the county. Nauvoo itself was 
very irregularly built, being scattered over six square miles, 
a part lying down upon the flat skirting the river, but the 

271 



272 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

major portion extending higher up, and crowning the bluff. 
The most conspicuous building in the place was the " Tem- 
ple," never thoroughly completed until too late for occupancy, 
which, standing upon the highest brow of the bluff, over- 
looked the surrounding country for twenty miles in Illinois 
and Iowa. It was built of compact, polished limestone, 
quarried within the limits of the city, but no order of archi- 
tecture was observed, the Mormons asserting that they 
built day by day through direct inspiration. It was one 
hundred and twenty-eight feet long, eighty-eight feet wide, 
sixty-five feet to the top of the cornice, and one hundred and 
sixty-five to the summit of the cupola. The basement was 
a huge apartment, and contained a baptistry supported by 
twelve oxen hewn out of limestone. In the main story was 
the audience-room, the second contained another room, 
while in the third was a hall for educational purposes. Be- 
sides these, the building also contained numerous smaller 
apartments for the use of the church officials. 

Upon the peculiar religious tenets of the Mormons we 
need not dwell. Their stormy career while in Illinois is 
the theme of this chapter, and it is only necessary to briefly 
consider that pecuHar faith on which all else was founded. 
Joseph Smith, a native of Vermont, obscure, without money 
or education, or even respectability, professed to have re- 
ceived a special revelation, engraven on brass plates hidden 
in a box, which he had discovered on a hillside near Palmyra, 
New York, in 1827. Thus he became the founder and 
leader of this persevering body of blindly believing men and 
women. In twenty years the disciples of this " prophet '* 
increased to six hundred thousand. The first distinctive 
Mormon settlement was established at Kirtland, Ohio, in 
1 83 1. From here a mission was soon despatched into Mis- 
souri, and, after a disgraceful failure of the Mormon bank 
at Kirtland, the leaders of the sect, including Smith 
and Rigdon, his principal lieutenant, likewise sought 




iryU^i^ 



FROM A RARE PHOTOGRAPH 



THE MORMONS AT NAWOO 273 

refuge in the West. Soon after their Missouri advent, a 
military corps, called the " Danite Band," was organized, 
ostensibly as a protection to the disciples from all " Gen- 
tiles," as those unconnected with them were called. It was 
a secret organization, with password and grip, the mem- 
bers bound by a solemn oath to " do the prophet's bid- 
ding," and to drive off, or " give to the buzzards," all who 
dissented from Smith's revelations. This organization 
was undoubtedly at the bottom of nearly all subsequent 
trouble. 

As a result of illegal and violent acts soon following this 
settlement, the aroused people of Missouri compelled them 
to depart from the State, and in 1840 twelve thousand of 
them arrived in Illinois in a destitute condition. Their tale 
of distress and persecution touched the hearts of neighboring 
settlers, who kindly assisted them in every possible way to 
obtain a new start at Nauvoo. The State legislature passed 
several special acts for their benefit, conferring on them 
powers and prerogatives which later became exceedingly 
dangerous to the surrounding community. With its intensely 
industrious population, which was constantly augmented by 
fresh arrivals, Nauvoo thrived wonderfully, and in the short 
space of two years a city was built, containing every known 
form of architecture, from humble mud hut to stately stone 
mansion. By this time, also, under special legislative enact- 
ment, they were permitted to organize the " Nauvoo Legion," 
a body of four thousand well-drilled Mormons, with the 
prophet as general. 

To understand something of the danger of such a situa- 
tion as this, it is necessary to comprehend to some extent the 
character of this rapidly increasing Mormon population. 
Governor Ford, in whose administration these troubles oc- 
curred, has sketched their peculiarities clearly. It really 
consisted of two distinct classes — the rulers and the ruled. 
The one was characterized by shrewd knavery, the other by 



274 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

credulity. Few moral distinctions were ever made in that 
community, and none socially ; the mass of converts were 
drawn from the lowest social stratum, and many a well- 
known criminal found safe hiding-place from the law at 
Nauvoo. All that the leaders apparently cared for was the 
strengthening of their individual power, and the constant 
increase of their revenues. The majority of the ruled were 
simply fanatics, whose credulity made them the faithful fol- 
lowers of self-appointed leaders, among whom Smith con- 
tinued chief. There was a wide difference among them in 
education and industry. The many toiled, while the few 
enjoyed the results of that toil. The more polished portion 
of the Mormons is said to have been a merry set of fellows, 
fond of music and dancing, dress, and gay assemblies. They 
had their regular parties and balls, from which, however, 
no one was ever known to be barred on the score of character. 
In short, it was a community of rich and poor, drone and 
worker, ruled over arbitrarily by twelve apostles, with Smith 
at their head, ever seeking new power, and growing more and 
more indifferent to all considerations, excepting their own 
selfish interests. In the very nature of things, a clash be- 
tween such a community and the State must inevitably 
occur. 

From the date of first settlement until 1844, Mormon- 
ism prospered unchecked in and about Nauvoo. It was 
during this period that the prophet is said to have received 
his revelation permitting the chiefs of the Mormon hierarchy 
to have as many wives as they could support. This new 
privilege led to the first serious division in the ranks of the 
" faithful," resulting in the establishment of a rival news- 
paper at Nauvoo, called the " Expositor," in May, 1844. 
This immediately provoked trouble, as the *' Expositor " 
in its first, which was also its last, issue began exposing 
certain questionable acts on the part of the prophet and his 
advisers. As a result, a party of Mormons, presumably 



THE MORMONS AT NAVVOO 275 

acting under direct orders from those high in authority, made 
a sudden cowardly attack on the offending printing-office, 
broke the press into pieces, and flung the type by the handfuls 
into the street. This outrage led the rebels against Smith's 
dictatorial power to unite their influence with the rapidly 
increasing number of Mormon opponents living in the 
outside country district, and warrants were finally sworn out 
for the arrest of Joseph Smith, his brother, Hyrum, and 
several others then prominent in the church government. 
The leader in this rebellious movement was William Law, 
who declared that personal wrongs had been done him at the 
hands of Smith. Those arrested were merely taken before 
the municipal court of the city (of which Smith was likewise 
mayor) and, on habeas corpus proceedings, immediately dis- 
charged. The seceding disciples were soon after compelled 
to leave Nauvoo, and retired to Carthage, the county seat. 
Meanwhile, Smith was constantly engaged strengthening his 
civil authority. By means of his common council, and with- 
out the slightest authority of law, he established a recorder's 
office at Nauvoo, in which alone the titles to property could 
be recorded. So he also established a department of mar- 
riage licenses, and proclaimed that none in the city should 
purchase real estate for the purpose of selling again, excepting 
himself. These acts, however, affected only the resident 
Mormon population, but the " Saints," encouraged thereby, 
immediately took other and far more radical steps, which 
tended to awaken outside antagonism, and suspicion as to 
their ultimate purposes. A law was enacted providing that 
no writ issued from any other place than Nauvoo should be 
executed within the limits of that city, unless countersigned 
by the mayor. As a result, robberies could be, and were, 
committed elsewhere, the culprits fleeing for safety to Nauvoo, 
where full protection was assured. It became a Mecca for 
criminals throughout that entire section, counterfeiters being 
especially numerous. About this same time, petitions were 



276 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

sent to Congress asking the organization of a separate terri- 
torial government, of which Nauvoo should be the centre, 
and Smith actually announced himself as a candidate for 
President of the United States, sending forth nearly three 
thousand missionaries to advocate his claims before the 
people. These acts awakened much uneasiness throughout 
the State, and served to crystallize public sentiment against 
any further encroachment on the part of the Mormon leaders. 
Inflamed by such rapidly increasing arrogance, those in the 
immediate neighborhood of Nauvoo, and especially the 
settlers of Hancock County, felt that they rested in close 
proximity to a powder-magazine, which needed but a spark 
to produce an explosion. 

The spark was early forthcoming. So persistent were 
rumors of evil intention upon the part of the Mormon popu- 
lation, coupled with their persistent ignoring of State laws, 
that Governor Ford, whose account of these events is most 
complete, and generally correct, paid a personal visit to the 
county for purposes of investigation. Whether rightfully 
or not, the militia in Schuyler and McDonough Counties 
were called out, and assembled at Carthage to aid in the en- 
forcement of civil processes throughout the Mormon commu- 
nity. Hearing of this. Smith at once proclaimed Nauvoo to 
be under martial law; his followers throughout the country 
were summoned to the defence of the city against invaders, 
and the legion assembled under arms. Yet, when the con- 
stable with his deputies appeared, no armed resistance was 
attempted, although much delay occurred. Through the 
influence of the Governor, final surrender was made, and on 
June 24, 1844, Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, with 
the members of the Nauvoo city council, went unattended to 
Carthage, and there surrendered themselves prisoners to 
the county authorities on the simple charge of riot, as nothing 
more serious had been formally alleged against them. 

They were confined in the jail, which was a stone building 



THE MORMONS AT NAUVOO 277 

of considerable size, furnished with a suite of rooms for the 
jailer, cells for the close confinement of dangerous prisoners, 
and a large apartment, not so safe, but far more comfortable. 
The Mormon leaders were first confined in the cells, but 
later transferred to this larger room, where they were allowed 
many liberties. No apprehension whatever was apparently 
entertained by the oflRcials in charge of any attack being 
made on the jail from without, nor was it believed the pris- 
oners would endeavor to escape, as the charge against them 
was not a serious one. The Governor, anxious to smooth 
over the difficulty, proceeded with a small escort to Nauvoo, 
that he might better understand the situation, while appar- 
ently every necessary precaution had been taken to safe- 
guard the prisoners confined at Carthage. 

But by this time the entire anti-Mormon population of 
Hancock County was at fever-heat. A large number of men, 
principally from Warsaw, assembled in and about Carthage, 
ready for any desperate deed, if only the opportunity and a 
leader arose. Who their leader was will probably never be 
definitely ascertained, but the opportunity soon appeared 
in the rumor rapidly spreading that the "Carthage Grays," 
the only military organization then remaining on duty, were 
encamped in the public square, with only eight men left as 
a guard over the jail. Suddenly, with all plans apparently 
perfected, the assaulting mob, which was composed of 
scarcely more than fifty men, many of these Missourians, 
having blackened their faces to prevent recognition, scaled 
the slight fence surrounding the jail enclosure, and made a 
rapid rush for the building. The few soldiers on duty, 
having no heart in the defence, fired in the air, and were 
promptly disarmed, the assailants surging up the stairs 
toward the room wherein the Smiths were known to be con- 
fined. At the time, two other prominent Mormons, Richards 
and Taylor, were with the prisoners. Hearing the shouts of 
the advancing mob, and the rush of feet on the stairs, the 



278 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

imperilled men within instinctively flung themselves against 
the door in a vain effort to bar the way. Finding the door 
would not yield to their first blows, the leaders of the mob 
fired through the light wood, one bullet passing through 
Hyrum Smith, who fell, exclaiming, " I am a dead man." 
Taylor was struck in four places, almost at the same time, 
and Richards, who remained unhurt, caught him up in his 
arms, and ran with him to one of the inner cells. Joseph 
Smith, armed with an old pepper-box pistol, but already 
slightly wounded, fought bravely in defence of his life, wound- 
ing four of the assailants before the overwhelming rush of 
numbers and the bursting in of the door forced him to flee. 
Finally, his weapon exhausted, he rushed to a window on the 
east side, raised the sash and leaned partially out, probably 
with the intention of jumping, when several balls, fired from 
below, pierced his body, and he fell to the ground close beside 
the well-curb. It is believed not another shot was fired after 
Smith was thus killed. This occurred about five o'clock in 
the afternoon, and the mob immediately dispersed, many of 
them fleeing eighteen miles across the prairie to Warsaw. 
Much apprehension was felt lest the Mormon population 
of the country should rise in vengeance, but nothing of the 
kind occurred. Instead, the tragedy seemed to stun them 
with despair. A delegation travelled sadly to Carthage for 
their dead, and the bodies were buried at Nauvoo with all 
the honors of the church. Nine men, Levi Williams, Jacob 
C. Davis, Mark Aldrich, Thomas C. Sharp, Wm. Voras, 

John Wills, Wm. N. Grover, Gallagher, and Allen, 

were later indicted for this crime, tried, and by the sympa- 
thetic jury declared "not guilty." 

The principle that the death of the martyr is the seed of 
the church proved true in regard to Mormonism. Instead 
of perishing with its prophet, it received new life. Rigdon, 
who had been Smith's principal lieutenant, finding himself un- 
able to obtain chief rule, retired with a small remnant of the 




HOUSE OCCUPIED BY JOSEPH SMITH AT NAUVOO 




HOUSE OCCUPIED BY BRIGHAM YOUNG AT NAUVOO 



THE MORMONS AT NAWOO 279 

"saints " to Pennsylvania, while a council of twelve apostles 
took charge at Nauvoo and elected Brigham Young leader. 
Missionaries were despatched everywhere to preach their 
faith, and new disciples began pouring into Nauvoo from 
all over the world. With this rapid increase in membership, 
and consequent political power, the feeling of antagonism 
among the surrounding anti-Mormon population became 
more intense and dangerous than before. Outrages occurred 
on both sides, houses were fired, property destroyed, and 
lives sacrificed in a species of guerilla warfare extending 
throughout the entire extent of Hancock County. Within 
this limit no man's life was safe, while depredations were 
committed both up and down the river by bands of ruffians. 
Which side might be justly named the aggressor it would 
now be difficult to decide. Courts were invoked in vain by 
both parties ; feeling ran so intensely high that justice by 
jury was impossible, and, as a result. Mormon and Gentile 
resorted to the arbitrament of the rifle to settle their disputes 
and obtain their rights. Time and again the Governor de- 
spatched large forces of militia into the field to avert what had 
every appearance of civil war, but the moment these forces 
were withdrawn the conflict burst forth afresh, and new 
atrocities were committed. At Lima and Green Plains one 
hundred and twenty-five Mormon houses were burned, the 
occupants having to flee for their lives in the darkness. In 
retaliation for this act, the Mormons, several hundred strong, 
and well armed, took forcible possession of Carthage, and 
swept in destruction across a large portion of the county, 
destroying a number of lives. General Hardin, at the head 
of three hundred and fifty militiamen, succeeded in checking 
these ravages, and the scattered Gentiles returned to their 
homes. 

But now the adjoining counties, becoming fearful of in- 
vasion, took up the matter in earnest, demanding of the Gov- 
ernor, in no uncertain tones, that the entire body of Mormon 



28o HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

believers be driven from the State. This, as necessary to 
peace, was finally agreed upon, but, through the pacifying ef- 
forts of General Hardin, the distressed " saints " were given 
until the following Spring to effect arrangements for final 
removal. A small force of soldiers as guards, under Major 
Warren, was stationed at Nauvoo to keep peace in the mean- 
while. By this time the Mormon leaders fully realized the 
spirit of stern opposition arrayed against them, and the utter 
futility of attempting any longer to combat it by force of 
arms. Nothing remained but complete withdrawal from the 
State, with whatever was possible of their property. That 
Winter of 1845-46 was the scene in Nauvoo of stupendous 
preparation for the coming exodus. All the principal dwell- 
ings, including the Temple itself, were converted into work- 
shops, and before Spring came, twelve thousand wagons had 
been completed. Unfortunately, rumors early reached the 
place that United States regular troops w^ere on the way up the 
river to enforce certain writs long-ignored, and to escape 
these the movement westward was begun before all neces- 
sary preparations had been completed. As early as Feb- 
ruary 15, poorly provisioned and poorly clothed for such a 
journey, the leaders, accompanied by two thousand of their 
followers, crossed the wide Mississippi on the ice, and took 
up their weary journey through Iowa. By the middle of 
May, fully fourteen hundred more followed, with their flocks, 
their wives and little ones, the intention being to seek some 
safe spot in the far-off mountain wilderness of the West 
where they could remain utterly alone to work out their 
destiny. Possibly a thousand Mormons, who had thus far 
been unable to dispose of their property, remained behind 
in desolate Nauvoo. This remnant was almost immediately 
plunged into serious and increasing difficulties with the 
surrounding population of fast-encroaching Gentiles, eager 
enouo^h to profit by the necessities of the " saints." Some 
were whipped, and otherwise tortured, by mobs, while 



THE MORMONS AT NAUVOO 281 

others suffered heavy property losses. Retaliation naturally 
followed, and writs for arrest were freely sworn out on 
both sides. The trouble terminated in an armed attack 
on Nauvoo, made by hastily gathered forces under com- 
mand of Thomas S. Brockman, at one time a Campbellite 
preacher, of poor reputation, consisting of eight hundred 
volunteers, and five pieces of small artillery. The Mor- 
mons had barely two hundred men remaining for defence, 
yet succeeded in holding off their assailants until a self- 
appointed committee from Quincy interfered, and granted 
them fair terms of surrender. In this affair the Mormons 
lost one killed and nine wounded, their assailants three killed 
and four wounded. The Mormon remnant, thus finally 
banished from the city they had built, were thrown homeless 
on the Iowa shore, to get away as best they could, without 
either money or conveyances. Many died from hunger and 
exposure, but later, those who survived were aided on their 
journey by the awakening of a better public spirit among 
their enemies, which was exhibited in numerous acts of 
charity. 

The story of the Mormon exodus, after its advance had 
crossed the Mississippi, does not form part of Illinois history, 
but so thrilling are the incidents of that long march, and so 
vitally are they connected with the driving forth of the par- 
ticipants from this State, that the tale of it cannot be entirely 
ignored. That first company, which had crossed the river 
on ice in midwinter, had their families with them. The 
first night in camp, nine children were born. For days the 
cold was intense, the keen winds sweeping down across the 
bare prairies ; the nights becoming so many struggles to 
keep from freezing. Wood was scarce, the stock of food 
inadequate, and large numbers became permanently crippled 
from exposure. The long-wished-for Spring found them 
not half-way to the Missouri, and facing fresh difficulties. 
Snow, sleet, and rain combined to make the prairie soil, 



282 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

across which they must travel, a sea of black mud almost 
impassable; heavy downpours so swelled the streams as to 
result in weeks of delay. The winds of March brought 
more sickness than the storms of Winter. Coffins, formed 
of tree-bark, were made, and in these men, women, and 
children were laid away to rest. Such graves continually 
marked the progress of Mormon travel. 

Want developed disease; yet, in all their suffering, 
brotherhood was constantly in evidence. Self-denial was the 
rule, and each scrap of food any possessed was shared 
equally. Young men gave up their places in the column, 
walking back to portions of the frontier where they were 
unknown, and hiring themselves out for wages, that they 
might thus purchase provisions for the aged and destitute. 
Others halted in their pilgrimage, broke the prairie sod, and 
raised grain for the sustenance of their brethren. 

Nor during these months of trial among the vanguard were 
those left behind in Nauvoo any less burdened. Constantly 
harassed by their Gentile neighbors, as already described, 
their property sold for a song, or taken from them by fraud 
and force, their power of self-protection constantly waning, 
strange as it may seem, these zealous fanatics devoted the 
greater portion of their remaining energies to the completion 
of that Temple, which they already realized must immedi- 
ately be deserted to its fate. Never since the dispersion of 
the Jews does history afford any parallel to the Mormon 
attachment to this quaint and beautiful edifice. In every 
stone it was associated with, and symbolical of, their religion. 
Its erection had been enjoined upon them as a sacred duty, 
by their first prophet and his successors. From the begin- 
ning it was a labor of love; hardly a Mormon woman but 
had truly denied herself to make gifts in its behalf; scarcely 
a Mormon man who had not served the tenth part of his year 
upon its walls. Therefore, in this stress of their final linger- 
ing on Illinois soil, even while they were parrying the sword 



n 

O 

•3 








.-■3^ 




1 


O 

o 


■'>**! • 


;■ ■ "'&■• 




.- -W 

':'• H 


% M 


I 


c 


,>-< 


. >• '' • 




^il 


** B 


r:^ 




i 


U^ 


i 


s 




i 


J 


t 

i 
1 


^^^^^ 


1 








M 


IE 


bh 


1 






I9P 








K 

■ 
1 



THE MORMONS AT NAVVOO 283 

thrusts of their advancing enemies, this little remnant con- 
tinued to labor upon it, until they completed even the gilding 
of the angel and trumpet on the apex of its lofty spire. As 
a closing work, they placed on the entablature of the front, 
like a baptismal mark on the forehead, — 

" The House of the Lord ; 

Built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 

Holiness to the Lord ! " 

As Colonel Kane vv^rote: 

" For that one day the Temple stood resplendent in all its 
typical glories of sun, moon, and stars, and other abounding 
figured and lettered signs, hieroglyphics, and symbols, but that day 
only. The sacred rites of consecration ended, the work of re- 
moving the sacrosancta proceeded with the rapidity of magic. It 
went on all through the night, and when the morning of the next 
day dawned, all the ornaments and furniture, everything that could 
provoke a sneer, had been carried off, and, except some fixtures 
that would not bear removal, the building was dismantled to the 
bare walls. It was this day that witnessed the departure of the 
last elders and the largest band that moved in one company 
together. The people of Iowa have told me that from morning 
to night they passed westward like an endless procession. They 
did not seem greatly out of heart, they said; but at the top of 
every hill, before they disappeared, they were to be seen looking 
back, like banished Moors, on their abandoned homes, and the far- 
seen Temple with its glittering spire. After this consecration, 
which by outsiders was construed to indicate an insincerity on the 
part of the Mormons as to their stipulated departure, or at least a 
hope of return, their foes set upon them with renewed bitterness." 

This Temple, upon which had been bestowed so much of 
labor and love, was, only two years later, October 19, 1848, 
totally destroyed by the torch of an incendiary. 

By this time of the final departure of that lingering 
remnant from Nauvoo, the advance of the remarkable col- 
umn of pilgrims was at Grand Island, on the distant Platte. 
No picture of that great march through the wilderness 



284 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

can exceed the one sketched by Colonel Kane, before the 
Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 

" From the first formation of the camp, all its inhabitants were 
constantly and laboriously occupied. Many of them were highly 
educated mechanics, and seemed only to need a day's anticipated 
rest to engage them at the forge, loom, or turning-lathe, upon some 
needed chore of work. A Mormon gunsmith is the inventor of 
the excellent repeating-rifle, that loads by slides instead of cylinders ; 
and one of the neatest finished firearms I have ever seen was of 
this kind, wrought from scraps of old iron, and inlaid with the 
silver of a couple of half-dollars, under a hot July sun, in a spot 
where the average height of the grass was above the workman's 
shoulders. I have seen a cobbler, after the halt of his party on the 
march, hunting along the river bank for a lapstone in the twilight, 
that he might finish a famous boot sole by the camp-fire ; and I 
have had a piece of cloth, the wool of which was sheared and 
dyed and spun and woven during a progress of over three hundred 
miles. 

" At this time, say two months before the final expulsion from 
Nauvoo, there were already, along three hundred miles of the road 
between that city and our Papillon Camp, over two thousand 
emigrating wagons, besides a large number of nondescript turnouts, 
the motley makeshifts of poverty ; from the unsuitable heavy cart 
that lumbered on mysteriously with its sick driver hidden under its 
counterpane cover, to the crazy two-wheeled trundle, such as our 
poor employ for the conveyance of their slop-barrels — this pulled 
along, it may be, by a little drugged heifer, and rigged up only to 
drag some such light weight as a baby, a sack of meal, or a pack of 
clothes and bedding. Some of them were in distress of losses upon 
the way. A strong trait of the Mormons was their kindness to 
their brute dependents, and particularly to their beasts of draught. 

" Besides the common duty of guiding and assisting these 
unfortunates, the companies in the van united in providing the 
highway for the entire body of emigrants. The Mormons have 
laid out for themselves a road through the Indian Territory, over 
four hundred leagues in length, with substantial, well-built bridges, 
fit for the passage of heavy artillery, over all the streams, except a 



THE MORMONS AT NAVVOO 285 

few great rivers where they have established permanent ferries. 
The nearest unfinished bridging to the Papillon Camp was that 
of the Come a Cerf^ or Elkhorn, a tributary of the Platte, distant, 
maybe, a couple of hours' march. Here, in what seemed to be an 
incredibly short space of time, there rose the seven great piers and 
abutments of a bridge, such as might challenge honors for the 
entire public-spirited population of Lower Virginia. The party 
detailed to the task worked in the broiling sun, in water beyond 
depth, and up to their necks, as if engaged in the perpetration of 
some pointed and delightful practical joke. Their chief sport lay 
in floating along with the logs, cut from the overhanging timber up 
the stream, guiding them until they reached their destination, and 
then plunging them under water in the precise spot where they 
were to be secured. 

" Inside the camp, the chief labors were assigned to the 
women. From the moment when, after the halt, the lines had 
been laid, the spring wells dug out, and the ovens and fireplaces 
built, though the men still assumed to set the guard and enforce the 
regulations of police, the Empire of the Tented Town was with 
the better sex. They were the chief comforters of the severest 
sufferings, the kind nurses who gave them in their sickness those 
dear attentions with which pauperism is hardly poor, and which the 
greatest wealth often fails to buy. And they were a nation of 
wonderful managers. They could hardly be called housewives in 
etymological strictness, but it was plain that they had once been 
such, and most distinguished ones. Their art availed them in their 
changed affairs. With almost their entire culinary material limited 
to the milk of their cows, some store of meal or flour, and a very 
few condiments, they brought their thousand and one receipts into 
play with a success that outdid for their families the miracle of the 
Hebrew widow's cruse. They learned to make butter on a march, 
by the dashing of the wagon, and so nicely to calculate the work- 
ing of barm in the jolting heats, that as soon after the halt as an 
oven could be dug in the hillside and heated, their well-kneaded 
loaf was ready for baking, and produced good leavened bread for 
supper." 

It was thus that, day by day, this wonderful advance was 



286 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

conducted. In the early Spring of 1847, a body of one 
hundred and forty-three picked men, with seventy wagons 
drawn by their best horses, left Omaha to make the trail 
for those who were to follow. They carried little with them 
but seeds and farming implements, relying almost wholly on 
their rifles for food. They made long daily marches, moving 
as rapidly as possible. Behind them toiled on more slowly 
a second party with five hundred and sixty-six wagons, carry- 
ing a large quantity of grain. By the last of July, these hardy 
pioneers reached the valley of Salt Lake, and choosing this 
for their final halting-place, began, that same day, their labor 
with the plough. Behind them, struggling sternly on across 
a thousand miles of desert, streamed the seemingly endless 
procession of Mormon wagon trains; while yet farther 
away in distant Illinois, the deserted Temple looked down 
from its high bluff on the waters of the Mississippi, a des- 
olate memorial of a community passed away for ever from 
its shadow. 



CHAPTER XX 

EARLY AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS 

NEITHER English nor American settlers flowed into 
the Illinois country during the brief period of British 
control, the few soldiers stationed at Fort Chartres, and 
later at Fort Gage, together with some scattered fur traders, 
along the rivers, being the only evidence of their possession 
of this territory. Possibly the first of English lineage to 
touch the soil of Illinois was Lieutenant Frazer, who, in 
the early Spring of 1765, was despatched a thousand miles 
down the Ohio from Fort Pitt to prepare the Western Indian 
tribes, who had been associated with Pontiac, for the coming 
of Major George Croghan for a peace conference. Lieuten- 
ant Frazer's reception, however, was so threatening, that he 
abandoned his purpose, and fled to the French at Kaskaskia 
for protection, later going down the river to New Orleans. 
Major Croghan closely followed his distressed ambassador, 
accompanied by a small party of soldiers, and on the 6th of 
June reached the mouth of the Wabash. Here they dis- 
covered a breastwork, supposed to have been erected by 
the Indians. Six miles farther on, they made camp at a 
place called the "old Shawnee village," probably the site of 
Shawneetown. Here they remained six days, seeking to 
learn some news of Frazer. Starting once again down the 
Ohio, at their first landing the party was suddenly attacked 
by eighty Kickapoos and Mascoutins, and after five of his 
men had been killed, Croghan, with the remainder, was 
made prisoner. Taken up the Wabash to Vincennes, the 
Englishman was promptly released, through French in- 
fluence, and after holding a brief conference with Pontiac, 

287 



288 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

in a council-meeting somewhere near the northwestern 
corner of what is now Edgar County, he completed his long 
journey through the wilderness by travelling along the old 
French trail to Detroit. 

Undoubtedly, during the time intervening between Cro- 
ghan's brief visit and the invasion of the Americans under 
Clark, a few adventurous Kentucky hunters roamed over 
this region. Some, indeed, may have found their way there 
even earlier. They were not numerous, or w^armly welcomed 
by the French, and no establishment of settlements was 
attempted. But that such wanderers were already in the 
field is clearly evidenced by Clark's encounter with just 
such a party almost immediately after landing with his 
command at Massac. At the first coming of the British, 
the exodus of the old Canadian French was very large, the 
greater portion removing across the river to St. Genevieve, 
or Laclede's new hamlet of St. Louis. It is believed that 
scarcely two thousand souls remained within the territory of 
the Illinois. But Clark's returning soldiers made the charms 
of this new country widely known throughout the Eastern 
colonies, and almost at once the tide of American emigration 
set bravely in. Men who had served under Clark returned, 
accompanied by their families, having been granted land 
liberally as reward for their army experience. Others came 
with them, lured by their descriptions of this new wilderness 
land, and, within the short space of a single year, permanent 
settlements of American pioneers sprang up on the American 
Bottom and in the fertile valleys of the protecting Ozarks. 

Nor was Government lax in taking control. In October, 
1778, the Virginia Assembly, under whose orders Clark 
had conducted his expedition, organized all the territory 
lying northwest of the Ohio into the county of Illinois, 
and appointed Colonel John Todd, who, when under Clark's 
command, had been the first man to enter Fort Gage, as 
Lieutenant-Commandant. By the Spring of 1779, Todd 



EARLY AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS 289 

was at Kaskaskia, organizing a temporary government for 
the rapidly arriving colonists. At this period, with the excep- 
tion of the few remaining French in their small villages along 
the Mississippi, and some families scattered upon the banks 
of the Illinois and the Wabash, all within the present boun- 
daries of the State was the abode of the nomadic savage. It 
was not until the years 1779-80 that American immigration 
became at all apparent. All migrations are inclined to follow 
along certain lines of latitude, and the first arrivals in the 
Illinois country, taking advantage of the natural highway 
afforded them by the Ohio, were originally residents of 
Virginia and Pennsylvania, although not a few of them had 
made temporary halt within the confines of Kentucky. 
They were invariably of the frontier type, imbued with 
strong Southern sentiment, and not a few brought with 
them black slaves to aid in the future development of 
this new land. Either crossing the wilderness through 
Kentucky on foot or on horseback, constantly harassed by 
Indians along the way, or floating slowly down the beautiful 
stream in great, awkward family-boats, which were frequently 
attacked by hostile savages upon the shore, these daring 
settlers, most of them poor and nomadic in habits, began 
streaming into this newly opened country. Three hundred 
such family-boats were reported as arriving at the falls of the 
Ohio in 1780, although comparatively few pushed on to the 
Illinois. Meanwhile, for thirty-six years. Northern Illinois 
remained an almost untrodden wilderness. In 1812 possibly 
a dozen settlers were about the present site of Chicago, hov- 
ering within the protecting shadow of old Fort Dearborn, 
but no influx of colonists from the Northern States, arriving 
by way of the great lakes, and spreading out over the rich 
prairies of the more northern counties, occurred until after 
the close of the second war with England. Even then the 
advance was slow beyond the main water-courses, several 
counties being without a single settler as late as 1840. 



290 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

So far as known, the honor of being the first permanent 
American settlement in Illinois lies undecided between Belle- 
fontaine and New Design, both in Monroe County, where 
James Moore and a small party, including Shadrach Bond, 
James Garrison, Robert Kidd, and Larkin Rutherford, made 
their home in either 1780 or 1781. New Design was cer- 
tainly settled by 1782, and Piggot's Fort was built only a 
year later. The little band then in the country, not more 
than a dozen men all told, a few accompanied by their fami- 
lies, were not reenforced until 1785, when perhaps as many 
others joined them, seeking homes in the American Bottom. 
For some reason these early incoming Americans did not 
readily mix with the remnant of French population occupying 
the older settlements in Randolph County. They either 
halted below the Kaskaskia River, or else worked their un- 
wieldy arks farther north against the swift current of the 
Mississippi, leaving the French entirely alone. 

During all these earlier days the Illinois borders were not 
only constantly harassed by Indian raiders, but the incoming 
settlers were compelled to fight their passage along almost 
the entire length of the Ohio, which was lined with hostile 
savages. In consequence, the colonists were few, and those 
only of the most adventurous spirit. Colonel Todd, the 
first Virginia commandant, spent but little time in the Illinois 
country; he lost his life at the battle of Blue Licks, Kentucky, 
August 18, 1782. He was succeeded by a Frenchman, 
Timothee de Montbrun, of whom little or nothing is known. 
He naively writes himself, " Lt. Comdt. Par interim," and 
land grants bearing his signature were among the archives 
at Kaskaskia. March i, 1784, Virginia formally ceded her 
claim to all this territory lying north of the Ohio to the 
United States, but it was not until October, 1787, that 
Major-General Arthur St. Clair was elected by Congress as 
Governor of the Northwest Territory, of which the Illinois 
country then formed part. 



EARLY AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS 291 

This interim proved a slow transition period in the his- 
tory of the IlHnois settlements; colonists were few, while 
those already in the country, besides being constantly on the 
defensive against Indian attacks, were in great uncertainty 
as to their land titles. Nothing, indeed, seemed established 
upon a permanent basis; adventurers were many and spec- 
ulation rife. Until the final organization of the county of 
St. Clair in 1790, there was a very imperfect administration 
of the law, which consisted of an odd mixture of French and 
English precedents. There were no regular courts, and, 
indeed, no civil government worthy of mention. The settlers 
were a law unto themselves, and to their honor be it said, 
little occurred demanding serious punishment. A land 
speculation, instituted by a territorial court named by Gov- 
ernor Todd, did much to demoralize the earlier settlements. 
This court was appointed at Post Vincennes in 1779, and 
Colonel J. M. P. Legras acted as president. Adopting the 
custom of the French commandants, this court began to 
grant tracts of land to both French and American settlers, 
as well as to civil and military officers. Before 1783 nearly 
twenty-six thousand acres had thus been conveyed to differ- 
ent individuals, and by 1787, when the practice was stopped 
by General Harmar, the total grants amounted to forty- 
eight thousand acres. Indeed, so far did they venture as 
to grant to themselves, as members of the court, all that 
scope of country extending on the Wabash from Point La 
Coupee to the mouth of White River, seventy-two miles in 
length, and extending westward into Illinois for one hundred 
and twenty miles. This shameful transaction was early 
taken advantage of by swindlers, and great numbers of in- 
coming settlers were duped into buying land to which the 
seller possessed no legal right, although the original titles 
had been duly executed under the seal of Virginia. It was 
not until after 1802 that these sharp practices were entirely 
discontinued. 



292 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

In February, 1790, Governor St. Clair, accompanied by 
Secretary Winthrop Sargeant, arrived at Kaskaskia. At 
this time there were not more than three or four small 
scattered American settlements in the entire region, and 
probably not more than tv^^enty-five actual American settlers. 
The country extending from the conference of the Ohio to 
the mouth of Little Mackinaw Creek, on the Illinois, was 
organized into the county of St. Clair. This magnificent but 
desolate domain was divided into three judicial districts, 
and John Edgar of Kaskaskia, John Baptiste Barbeau of 
Prairie du Rocher, and John de Moulin of Cahokia, were 
named as Judges. Of these, De Moulin was a Swiss, possess- 
ing a good education and some knowledge of law; Barbeau 
was Canadian French, and a merchant; while Edgar was an 
Englishman. Cahokia became the county seat, with Wil- 
liam St. Clair clerk and recorder, and William Biggs sheriff. 
Immigration, however, remained almost stationary for four 
years longer, being retarded by constantly recurring Indian 
wars, until after Wayne's great victory on the Maumee, 
August 20, 1794. From that date we may trace a steadily 
increasing influx of American settlers, pouring in by way of 
the Ohio. In the year 1791, only sixty-five Americans 
capable of bearing arms were in the Illinois country, with 
three hundred all told. By 1809 the population amounted to 
above nine thousand. 

As early as 1795, St. Clair County was divided by run- 
ning a line through the New Design settlement, in the 
present Monroe County, due east to the Wabash — all lying 
south being established into the new county of Randolph. 
For nine years following May 7, 1800, the Illinois country 
was known as a part of Indiana Territory, with the seat of 
government established at Vincennes. This was a period 
of continuous growth in population and extension of settle- 
ments. By the end of this period, colonists had advanced as 
far north as Wood River, in the present Madison County; 



EARLY AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS 293 

eastward on Silver Creek, and some miles up the Kaskaskia; 
south and east from Kaskaskia about fifteen miles out on the 
old Fort Massac road were frequent settlements; the Birds 
had located at the mouth of the Ohio; at Old Massac and 
the Ohio salines were small settlements ; Shawneetown, y 
which, after 18 13, and for a quarter of a century following, 
was the principal town in Illinois, had contained a few strag- 
gling houses since 1805 ; along the west side of the Wabash 
a number of families had made their homes, one McCawley 
having penetrated inland as far as the crossing of the Little 
Wabash. By 1804 an Irish colony had established itself 
near Cave-in-Rock, on the Ohio River, in Hardin County; 
one Daniels built a stockade fort in Jackson County a year 
later, and by 1807 a considerable settlement had gathered 
near the mouth of Skillet Fork, in the present White County. 
Chilton had a stockade fort as far north as the southeastern 
corner of what is now Madison County as early as 1803, 
while the Goshen settlements, established in 1802, and the 
Judy settlement, in 1801, were within the same county limits. 
Edwardsville was established in 1805. Turkey Hill, just 
east of the present Belleville, had settlers as early as 1798, 
but the most exposed and advanced post to the northward, 
previous to the second war with England, was Jones's stock- 
ade fort, established in western Bond County in 1809. This 
point marks the extreme advance of the American frontier 
when Illinois was first organized into a separate Territory. 
A glance at the map will reveal the wide, untracked wilder- 
ness stretching between these few, small, isolated settlements. 
Far to the northeast, where Chicago now stands, were a few 
settlers, chief among them being the fur trader, John Kin- 
zie, all clustering about Fort Dearborn, established in 1804. 
At the Peoria Lake a number of French traders resided. In 
1 8 10, the census returns showed the inhabitants to num- 
ber 11,501 whites, 168 slaves, and 613 of all others, except 
Indians — an increase of four hundred per cent during the 



294 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

preceding decade. Nine-tenths of what is now Illinois re- 
mained, however, an almost unknown wilderness over 
which red savages held undisputed dominion, outnumbering 
their white neighbors at least three to one. 

February 3, 1809, all this country, including the present 
State of Wisconsin as well, was reorganized under the name 
of Illinois Territory, and Ninian Edwards of Kentucky was 
appointed Governor. The next seven years, while exceed- 
ingly eventful along the Illinois frontier on account of the 
war with England, were not years of colonization or growth. 
The settlers already on the field were almost continually un- 
der arms in defence against Indian foray, while new arrivals 
were few in number. Large numbers of block-houses were 
erected, as described in a previous chapter, while the military 
campaigns, extending to north of the Illinois River, made 
the soldiers taking part in them acquainted with this remote 
country, and thus stimulated an advancement of settlers 
immediately following cessation of hostilities. Even while 
the struggle continued, some few were bold enough to push 
farther northward into the very heart of the hostile Indian 
country. T. Carlin erected a cabin in 18 15 in the southern 
portion of Green County, while the Macoupin settlement 
was established a year later. Vandalia had settlers as early 
as 1813, while still farther east, within the present borders of 
Effingham County, G. Lippsword erected a lonely cabin in 
1815. September, 1812, the counties of Madison, Gallatin, 
and Johnson were organized, making at that date a total 
of five. 

With the close of the war, the tide of immigration at once 
set in with renewed volume, the more northern States now 
being largely represented, their contingent arriving by way 
of the lakes, and scattering out from Chicago. An Act of 
Congress, passed in 18 13, granting the right to settle by 
preemption upon the public domain, contributed largely to 
this desire for settlement. Previously, emigrants in four 



EARLY AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS 295 

cases out of five had merely " squatted " on the land, acquir- 
ing no right or title. Small and inferior improvements w^ere 
the natural result ; but now^ matters immediately began to 
assume a more permanent appearance. Moreover, about 
this same time, a better means of communication was inau- 
gurated between the Illinois country and the East, not only 
stimulating emigration, but commerce as well. The keel- 
boat, with its six months' voyage to New Orleans, or the 
slow wagoning across the Alleghany Mountains, was super- 
seded by the steamboat. The first boat to ascend the 
Mississippi under its own steam was the ''General Pike," 
which reached St. Louis in August, 18 17; the "New 
Orleans" had come down the Ohio as early as 181 1. 

In the year 1818, Illinois, with its present boundaries, 
was admitted to the Union as a State, having then an esti- 
mated population of forty thousand. The first election was 
held on the third Thursday of September, when Shadrach 
Bond was elected Governor. Fifteen counties were at this 
time duly organized, the most northerly of these being Bond, 
laid out the year previous. Only about one-fourth the 
actual territory of the new State was embraced within these 
organized counties. The settled portions of the State were 
at that time almost entirely south of a line drawn from Alton 
via Carlyle, to Palestine, on the Wabash, and even within this 
area there were large tracts of wilderness country several 
days' journey in extent; the settlements being mostly scat- 
tered along the borders of the principal streams. Nineteen- 
twentieths of the residents were Americans, and except a few 
from Pennsylvania, were nearly all of Southern origin. 
These indelibly stamped their peculiar characteristics upon 
all of Southern Illinois. By 1821, the counties of Greene, 
Fayette, Montgomery, Lawrence, Hamilton, Sangamon, and 
Pike were established, the latter including all of the State 
lying north and west of the Illinois River. This vast and 
hitherto unoccupied territory was by this time beginning to 



296 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

receive its pioneer settlers. J. A. Perrigo had taken land 
in the present Adams County; Scott had a small settlement 
established in 1820 ; and the same year saw the starting of 
the Diamond Grove colony in northern Morgan, while 
north of the river a few settlers had established homes in 
Fulton. From this date the progress of the pioneers was 
rapid. In the counties as now organized, C. Hobart was 
in Schuyler by 1823; Carter's settlement, in McDonough, in 
1826; Yellow Bank, in Henderson, in 1827; Knox had 
settlers by 1828, and Stark the same year. Peoria was never 
wholly deserted by Americans after the erection of Fort 
Clark in 1813. Menard had a settlement as early as 1819, 
and Beardstown was founded that same year. The more 
eastern counties seem to have been somewhat slower in 
attracting immigration, although McLean had two settle- 
ments — Funk's and Randolph's Groves — as early as 1824. 
Coles was first settled in 1824, while Edgar was invaded in 
1817. In Vermilion several settlements were started by 1820. 
The Summer of 1825 witnessed much change in popula- 
tion. A great tide set in toward the central portion of the 
State. Through Vandalia alone, we are told, two hundred 
and fifty wagons were counted in three weeks' time, all bound 
north. Destined for Sangamon County, eighty wagons and 
four hundred people were counted in two weeks' time. The 
census of that year gave the State a population of 72,817. 
By 1830 the census returns reached 157,447. There were 
at this time fifty-six organized counties, but those in the 
northern portion of the State were mere skeletons, and 
unwieldy in size. Fully a third of the domain now co'nsti- 
tuting Illinois yet remained a wilderness. All that portion, 
with the exception of a few remote frontier settlements and 
traders' stockades lying between Chicago and Galena, and 
stretching southward to the Illinois River and even beyond, 
was hunted over by Sacs and Foxes, Winnebagoes, and 
Pottawattomies. What settlers there were hugged the out- 



EARLY AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS 297 

skirts of the timber bordering the rivers and creeks, or the 
edge of groves, scarcely any venturing forth upon the open 
and, as they still believed, unproductive prairie. Along the 
Mississippi and the Illinois, settlements v^ere scattered at 
distant intervals, v^hile on Fever River were congregated 
about a thousand all told, mostly employed at lead-mining. 
In 1825, Mr. Kellogg laid out a trail betv^een Peoria Lake 
and this settlement of distant lead-miners at Galena, It 
ran through an unbroken wilderness, crossing Rock River 
a few miles above the present Dixon, and passing through 
West Grove. Winnebago Indians assisted the travellers 
to cross the stream, by forming a ferry-boat of canoes, while 
the horses swam. A year later Bolles trail was established, and 
the river ferried at Dixon, about where the Illinois Central 
bridge now stands. This was a more direct route, and be- 
came at once popular. In the Spring of 1827, within the 
space of a few days, two hundred teams passed at this point. 
The Lewiston trail, still farther west, crossed the Rock at 
Prophetstown, in Whiteside County. 

A glance at the map will show the location of the few 
points north of the Illinois occupied at this time by Ameri- 
can pioneers. In La Salle County were three small settle- 
ments, including Ottawa ; Bureau likewise contained three, 
the most northerly being at Dad Joe's Grove, a famous 
stopping-place on the old Galena trail ; in northern Lee 
was La Sallier's trading-post, established as early as 1822, 
while a man named Ogee had operated a ferry just above 
Dixon since 1827. Savannah, on the Mississippi, had in- 
habitants in 1828, and Rock Island in 1826. In Ogle, old 
man Kellogg held down an isolated claim about the grove 
perpetuating his name; in Stephenson, O. W. Kellogg set- 
tled in 1827, "^^^ there were a cabin or two amid the wilds of 
Kendall and Will Counties. Chicago was the merest vil- 
lage, almost lost in mud. 

Up to the close of the Black Hawk War, Illinois, in 



298 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

all essential features, remained the far frontier, while her 
population exhibited every characteristic of the border. 
Among the common people, the niceties of dress and manners 
were given little attention. But after this date a new era 
dawned, and the population rapidly changed their customs 
to conform with fast advancing civilization. The original 
dress of the territory, which had been a raccoon-skin cap, 
linsey hunting-shirt, buckskin breeches, and moccasins, with 
a belt around the waist, to which were attached knife and 
tomahawk, gradually disappeared, until it was rarely seen. 
The costume year by year grew more to conform to that worn 
in the Eastern States. The women changed in this respect 
even more rapidly than the men. The old cotton and woollen 
frocks, spun, woven, and made with their own hands, and 
striped and cross-barred with blue dye and turkey red, gave 
place to boughten gowns of calico, or even silk. The head, 
formerly uncovered, or decorated by marvellous sun-bonnets, 
became crowned with wonders of millinery art. With this 
pride of appearance came a desire for comforts, and even 
luxury, in the home life. The log cabins were abandoned in 
the little timber openings, and better houses, of plank, or 
stone, built on the previously despised open prairie. Vil- 
lages, springing up more thickly, began at once to exercise 
refining influences over the manners and habits of the pre- 
viously isolated settlers. 

During all these years of slow pioneer advancement, the 
pursuits of the people, other than the professional hunters, 
were entirely agricultural. A very limited number of mer- 
chants supplied those few necessities not produced or manu- 
factured at home, while far apart small mills were operated. 
The settler raised his own provisions ; tea and cofi^ee were 
almost unknown in the newer settlements. Ford writes of 
those days: 

" The farmer's sheep furnished wool for his winter clothing ; 
he raised cotton and flax for his summer clothing. His wife and 



EARLY AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS 299 

daughters spun, wove, and made it into garments. A little cop- 
peras and indigo, with the bark of trees, furnished dye-stuffs for 
coloring. The fur of the raccoon made him a hat or cap. The 
skins of deer, or of his own cattle, tanned at a neighboring tanyard, 
or dressed by himself, made him shoes or moccasins. Boots were 
rarely seen, even in the towns. And a log cabin, made entirely of 
wood, without glass, nails, hinges, or locks, furnished the residence 
of many a contented and happy family. The people were quick 
and ingenious to supply by invention, and with their own hands, 
the lack of mechanics and artificers. Each settler, as a rule, built 
his own house, made his own ploughs and harness, bedsteads, 
chairs, stools, cupboards, and tables. The carts and wagons 
for hauling were generally made without iron, without tires or 
boxes, and were run without tar, and might be heard creaking as 
they lumbered along the roads, for the distance of a mile or more." 

In this connection, Governor Ford relates an anecdote 
regarding James Lemon, an old-time Baptist preacher of 
Monroe County. Mr. Lemon eked out his somewhat meagre 
salary by farming, and made all of his own harness. While 
breaking a bit of stubble-land, he turned out for dinner, 
leaving his harness on the plough-beam. His son, thinking 
thus to avoid an afternoon's hard work, hid one of the 
horse-collars. But the old man proved fully equal to the 
emergency. Returning, and not being able to iind the miss- 
ing collar, he mused for a moment, and then, to the great 
disappointment of Lemon, junior, deliberately pulled off his 
leather breeches, stuffed the legs with stubble, straddled 
them across the neck of his horse, and ploughed the rest of 
the day as bare-legged as he came into the world. 

Previous to 1818 there was no commerce between other 
settlements and the Illinois, except the small traffic carried 
on by the French in their unwieldy barges along the rivers. 
It made but little progress during the period extending from 
that date to 1830. Steamboats became somewhat numerous 
on Western waters by 18 16, and a few years later one or two 
small ones were operating along the Illinois River as far as 



300 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Peoria, and possibly farther. The old keel-boats rapidly 
disappeared, yet there was so little trade that steamboating 
was for considerable time far from profitable. The mer- 
chants in the little villages, having usually exceedingly 
small capital, were mere retailers of dry-goods and groceries ; 
they purchased for shipping nothing excepting a few skins, 
and a little tallow and beeswax. These men rarely paid cash 
for anything, but traded for the goods carried in stock. In- 
deed, they possessed neither capital nor talent for any more 
liberal line of trade, the development of which had to wait 
patiently until the country became older and more thickly 
settled. New Orleans remained the principal market for the 
early Illinois country, but it was only a small city, and was 
easily glutted by any over-production. Because of this lack 
of merchants, the Illinois producers early became traders 
on their own account. Several would collect a quantity 
of articles believed to be salable, build a flat-bottomed 
boat, load their wares into it, and float down to New Orleans 
and a market. The journey home was usually accom- 
plished on foot, and such ventures seldom proved profitable. 
Among all these earlier settlers who made homes remote from 
the French villages, the great want was mills. The simplest 
modes of trituration, as Governor Reynolds depicts them, 
were by means of the grater and the mortar. The first con- 
sisted in the brisk rubbing of an ear of corn over a piece of 
tin closely pierced or indented. The mortar was extempo- 
rized by excavating with fire the butt of a good-sized short 
log, up-ended, sufficiently deep to hold a peck or more of , 
corn. Over this was erected a sweep to lift, by counter- 
traction, a piston with a firm, blunt end, which pounded the 
corn into a coarse meal. To these primitive and laborious 
processes succeeded, in order of their simplicity, and in due 
time, hand-mills, band-mills, horse-mills, and last, water- 
mills. 

After the close of the War of 1812, the new arrivals from 



EARLY AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS 301 

the Eastern States brought some money and property with 
them; the earhest pioneers had had httle or none. Before this 
time money was scarcely ever seen in the country, skins being 
used as a circulating medium. The money thus brought in, 
together with that which had been paid to the volunteers 
during the war, awakened the people to new ambition, so 
that by 18 19 the entire country was in a perfect rage for spec- 
ulating in land and town lots. The Government was then 
selling land at two dollars per acre ; eighty dollars on the 
quarter-section to be paid down on the purchase, with a 
credit of five years for the remainder. Everyone on hand 
began to invest, expecting to reap a fortune from future- 
arriving immigrants. The two independent banks then 
oro;anized — at Edwardsville and Shawneetown — invested 
all their surplus in this way, and loaned freely to others for 
the same purpose. New towns were laid out all over the 
country, and by 1820 nearly the entire population were 
deeply involved. But the expected immigrants failed to 
arrive, and, consequently the whole financial structure fell 
like a house of cards, tying up the entire business of the coun- 
try, and for years following money was almost as scarce an 
article as in the earliest days. 

It was not until 1857 that the last ccunty — Douglass — 
was defined and organized. This was iri the eastern-central 
portion of the State, and had contained settlers, at the Ash- 
more settlement, near its southern boundary, from an early 
date. Moreover, the old French trail from Kaskaskia to 
, Detroit crossed this territory, as did the later trail running 
from Terre Haute to Fort Clark. The picturesque days of 
the frontier had by this time almost wholly vanished, and the 
typical bordermen, who, through suffering and danger and 
privation, had won this broad domain from savagery, had 
either entirely passed from the earth, or drifted on, ever in 
advance of civilization, across the Mississippi. The age de- 
picted, the movements traced, poorly picture this continuous 



302 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

struggle against nature and barbarism, which was so strongly 
fought out through seventy-seven years, by these iron heart- 
ed men and women in the midst of the vast wilderness. 
From the moment when James Moore and his adventurous 
companions first set foot on the soil of Monroe County, 
down to the final organization of Douglass, there was no halt- 
ing in the steady, determined advance of that skirmish-line 
of American pioneers. Through wars with Indians and white 
antagonists; through months of dreary Winter and parch- 
ing Summer; through danger and death, hardship and 
deprivation, they toiled sternly, each year witnessing newly 
conquered country, settlements, and solitary cabins planted 
ever farther out into the surrounding wilderness. Where 
neighbors w^ere near at hand, as in the colony settlements 
or about the stockaded forts, much of frontier merriment 
prevailed, and toil was made sweeter through companion- 
ship. But in those many solitary cabins, sunk deep within 
the heart of the timber, which from time to time dotted 
the banks of every stream from the Wabash to the far-ofF 
Fever, who can picture the intense loneliness of their in- 
habitants, or compute the price they paid for what is ours 
to-day ^. These were the men, women, children, who, 
through self-sacrifice and toil, peril, and desperate lone- 
liness, won this great domain from savagery to civilization. 



CHAPTER XXI 
THE STORY OF THE CAPITAL 

THE Illinois country had been duly organized into a Ter- 
ritory by the Ordinance of 1787, but for nearly four 
years following no attempt was made to select or convene 
any legislative body. By reason of extraordinary powers, 
conferred upon him through special Act of Congress, the 
Governor was not only an executive, but likewise to a great 
degree the law-making power of this sparsely occupied 
region. Under the terms of that justly celebrated ordinance 
— a curiosity still to the student of republican institutions — 
the private citizen was apparently considered as of no par- 
ticular account. He was not permitted to exercise the 
elective franchise, unless he was a freeholder of fifty acres, 
nor could he hope for election to legislative honors, without 
possessing two hundred acres. All the Territorial officials 
not directly named by the President in person were to be 
appointed by the Governor. The latter was permitted the 
privilege of convening a legislature whenever he became 
fully convinced that a majority of the freeholders desired it. 
Judging from results, no Governor was ever so convinced, 
for, in spite of a continuous and increasing clamor, amount- 
ing almost to an uproar, on the part of the settlers, no such 
call was issued until Congress once again took hold of 
the matter, and thus afforded partial relief to the perplexed 
and disfranchised citizens. 

By the Act of May 21, 18 12, Illinois was duly advanced 
to the second grade of Territorial government. By this 
action the right of suffrage was specifically extended to any 
white male person, twenty-one years old, who had paid a 

303 



304 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Territorial tax, and resided in the Territory for one year 
preceding any election. Property qualifications were abol- 
ished. For such purposes of voting the Governor was 
required to apportion the Territory. A vote to get an ex- 
pression from the people for or against entering upon this 
second grade of Territorial government was held during 
three successive days, beginning on the second Monday in 
April, 1 8 12. The question was decided in the affirmative 
by a large majority. At once the Governor, assisted by the 
judges, organized the new counties of Madison, Gallatin, 
and Johnson, which, with the two old counties of St. Clair 
and Randolph, made a total of five. September i6, a 
proclamation was issued, publishing their establishment and 
boundaries. On the same date, a call was issued for the 
election of five members of the new Legislative Council, 
seven representatives, and a delegate to Congress. The 
time set was the eighth, ninth, and tenth days of October, 
in each county. The voting-places were: Madison County, 
the house of Thomas Kirkpatrick; St. Clair County, at the 
Court-house in Cahokia; Randolph County, the Court- 
house of Kaskaskia; Gallatin County, at Shawneetown; 
and for the county of Johnson, at the house of John Brad- 
shaw. By the resulting vote of the people, Shadrach Bond, 
one among the earliest settlers of the Territory, a nephew 
of that Shadrach Bond who first came to New Design in 
1783, and later the first Governor of the State, was elected 
to Congress. The members chosen to the Legislative 
Council were Pierre Menard, of Randolph, selected to pre- 
side; William Biggs, of St. Clair; Samuel Judy, of Madi- 
son; Thomas Ferguson, of Johnson and Benjamin Talbot, 
of Gallatin. Those elected to the House of Representatives 
were: George Fisher, of Randolph; Joshua Oglesby and 
Jacob Short, of St. Clair; William Jones, of Madison; Phi- 
lip Trammel and Alexander Wilson, of Gallatin; and John 
Grammar, of Johnsoh. 



THE SrORT OF THE CAPITAL 305 

From Davidson and Stuve's " History of Illinois " we take 
the following brief pen-pictures of these pioneer legislators 
for this infant Territory: 

" Pierre Menard^ a Canadian Frenchman, settled at Kaskaskia 
in 1790. He was a merchant, and enjoyed an extensive trade 
with the Indians, over whom he exerted a great influence, and was 
for many years the Government Agent for them. He was well in- 
formed, energetic, frank, and honest, and was very popular with all 
classes. William Biggs was an intelligent and respectable member, 
who had been a soldier in Clark's expedition, and ten years after- 
wards had been a prisoner for several years among the Kickapoos. 
He wrote and published a complete narrative of his Indian captivity, 
and, in 1826, Congress voted him three sections of land. He was 
for many years County Judge. Samuel Judy — the same who, in 
the Fall preceding, commanded the corps of spies in Governor 
Edwards's military campaign to Peoria Lake — was a man of 
energy, fortitude, and enterprise. Some of his descendants now 
reside in Madison County. Joshua Oglesby was a local Methodist 
preacher of ordinary education, who lived on a farm, and was 
greatly respected by his neighbors. Jacob Shorty the colleague of 
Oglesby, removed to Illinois with his father, Moses, in Ijg(>, and 
pursued farming. During the War of 18 1 2, he distinguished him- 
self as a ranger. George Fisher possessed a fair education, and was 
by profession a physician. He removed from Virginia to Kaskas- 
kia in 1800, and engaged in merchandising, but at this time he 
resided on a farm. Philip Trammel was a man of discriminating 
mind, inclined to the profession of arms. He was the lessee of the 
United States Saline in Gallatin County../ His coWeagwe^ Alexander 
Wilson^ was a popular tavern-keeper at Shawneetown, of fair abili- 
ties. / /iF/7//^;w Jones was a Baptist preacher, grave in his deportment, 
and possessed of moderate abilities. He was born in North Carolina, 
removed to Illinois in 1806, and settled in the Rattan prairie, east 
of Alton. This was the first appearance in public life of John 
Grammar. He afterwards represented Union County frequently 
during a period of twenty years. He had no education, yet was a 
man of shrewdness. After his election, it is related that, to pro- 
cure the necessary apparel to appear at the seat of government, he 



3o6 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

and the family gathered a large quantity of hickory nuts, which 
were taken to the Ohio Saline and traded off for blue strouding, 
such as the Indians usually wore for breech-cloth. When the 
neighboring women assembled to make up the garments, it was 
found that he had not invested quite enough nuts. The pattern 
was measured in every way possible, but was unmistakably scant. 
Whereupon it was decided to make a bob-tailed coat, and a long 
pair of leggings. Arrayed in these he duly appeared at the seat of 
government, where he continued to wear his primitive suit for the 
greater part of the session. Notwithstanding his illiteracy, he had 
the honor of originating the practice, much followed by public men 
since, of voting against all new measures — it being easier to con- 
ciliate public opinion for being remiss in voting for a good measure, 
than to suffer arraignment for aiding in the passage of an unpopular 
one." 

By proclamation of the Governor, this interesting and 
pioneer legislative body convened at the seat of government 
in Kaskaskia on November 25. The two houses met in 
a large, rough, old building of uncut limestone, having a 
steep roof and gables of unpainted boards, with dormer- 
windows, situated in the centre of a square> and which, after 
the partial ruin and abandonment of Fort Chartres, had 
been utilized by the French as headquarters for the military 
commandant. Some able historians assert that this building, 
rather than Fort Gage, was the British military headquarters 
captured by General Clark in 1778. The lower floor, which 
consisted of one large, cheerless room, with very low ceiling, 
was roughly fitted up for the use of the House, while a smaller 
upper chamber was given over to the deliberations of the 
Council. The latter body chose John Thomas as their sec- 
retary, while the House elected for clerk William C. Green- 
up. The two bodies possessed a doorkeeper in common. 
All the twelve members, we are solemnly informed, boarded 
with one family, and, it is suspected, lodged in a single room. 
The difference exhibited here in comparison with more 
modern legislative customs is very marked, and was scarcely 



THE STORT OF THE CAPITAL 307 

less conspicuous in other matters. History tells us that 
these primitive law-makers of Illinois addressed themselves 
diligently to the business in hand, making no effort at delay 
or circumlocution. Windy speeches and violent contentions 
v^ere unheard of, and parliamentary tacticians, if any such 
were present, met with sudden squelching. It has been 
naively remarked that not a lawyer appears on the roll of 
names. It is reported, possibly by political enemies, then as 
now extremely active, that at the conclusion of each legis- 
lative session the long table was promptly cleared, and the 
weary statesmen regaled themselves by playing the popular 
game of bung-loo. 

The scope of this charter makes any extended review 
of laws enacted impossible, but it may be well to mention 
a few of the more stringent and peculiar. Beginning with 
a totally blank legislative page, attention was early addressed 
to criminal affairs, and a degree of punishment for crime 
adopted strange to these later and more fastidious days. 
For felonies and misdemeanors, whipping on the bare back, 
confinement in stocks, standing in the pillory, and branding 
with hot irons, were the penalties prescribed, in addition to 
fines, imprisonment, and loss of citizenship. The number of 
stripes to be inflicted was prescribed with painful accuracy: 
for burglary, 39; perjury, larceny, etc., 31; horse steal- 
ing, first oflPence, 50 to 100; hog-stealing, 25 to 39; defacing 
brands, 40 ; bigamy, from 100 to 300. Besides in cases of 
treason and murder, death by hanging was pronounced 
against arson, rape, and second-offence horse-stealing. In 
case of debt, if the property found was not sufficient to 
liquidate the obligation, the body of the debtor might be 
seized and cast into prison. The Territorial revenue was 
raised by a tax on lands; the county revenue, chiefly by a 
tax on personal property, including slaves. Able-bodied 
single men, owning two hundred dollars' worth of taxable 
property, were assessed one dollar each. The entire Terri- 



3o8 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

torial revenue from November i, 1811, to November 8, 1814, 
amounted to but $4,875.45, while of this less than half 
had been actually paid into the treasury, the remainder being 
in the hands of delinquent sheriffs, of whom there were 
apparently a large number. In 1816, an act was passed 
preventing Indiana attorneys from practising in Illinois, 
while m 18 17 the Territory was carefully parcelled out 
between the medical doctors — all newcomers to be 
examined by the old practitioners, and then, at their dis- 
cretion, on the payment of ten dollars, possibly allowed 
to practise. This delightful condition prevailed until the 
Territory was made into a State, when it was promptly 
corrected. 

During the Territorial existence of Illinois, three such 
general assemblies were elected by the people — the Council 
holding over the second term. In 181 7, Colonel Benjamin 
Stephenson was selected as delegate to Congress, and in 
18 16 Nathaniel Pope was given similar honor. Ten new 
counties were meanwhile organized, and their boundaries 
defined. 

Bv the year 18 18 Illinois had sufficiently increased in 
population to aspire to a position among the sisterhood of 
States. Nathaniel Pope, then delegate in Congress, pre- 
sented the necessary petition to that body, and in due time 
a bill was reported for the admission of Illinois with an esti- 
mated population of forty thousand. This was probably 
an over-estimate. In defining the permanent boundaries of 
the new State, it was owing to the vigilance of Mr. Pope that 
we are to-day indebted for the coast on Lake Michigan, the 
site of Chicago, the northern terminus of the Illinois and 
Michigan Canal, and the lead mines of Galena. By the 
language of the Ordinance of 1787, all this region should 
have remained a portion of Wisconsin. In pursuance of 
this enabling act, a convention was called to draught the 
first constitution of the new State. The meeting was held 



THE STORT OF THE CAPITAL 309 

at Kaskaskia, in the same old building used for nine years 
previous by the Territorial legislature, beginning in July, 
18 1 8, and completing its labors on the twenty-sixth of 
August following. Of this body, consisting of thirty-three 
members, Jesse B. Thomas was chosen president, and 
William C. Greenup named as secretary. 

The constitution thus adopted was never submitted to 
any ratifying vote of the people, nor by it were they left very 
much choice, even in the selection of their more important 
State officers. While the election franchise was extended to 
embrace all white male inhabitants above twenty-one years of 
age, yet these electors were not trusted to vote except for gov- 
ernors, the General Assembly, sheriffs, and coroners; all other 
State and county officials being appointive with the General 
Assembly. The first election under this constitution — the 
defects of which were early apparent — was held in Septem- 
ber, 1818 ; and Shadrach Bond was selected as Governor, 
with Pierre Menard, Lieutenant-Governor. There was no 
other ticket in the field. Their period of service was for four 
years. By the terms of the document issued by the State 
Constitutional Convention, the seat of government was to 
remain at Kaskaskia until the General Assembly should 
otherwise direct. With this change in view, that body was 
required at its first session to petition Congress to grant to 
the State a quantity of land, to consist of not more than four 
and not less than one section, or to give to the State the right 
of preemption in the purchase of that quantity, the land to 
be situated on the Kaskaskia River, and, as near as might 
be, east of the third principal meridian, on that river. Should 
this request be granted, the General Assembly, at its next 
following session, was required to appoint five commissioners 
to make selection of the land and provide for the laying out 
of a town upon it; which town, it was declared, should 
remain the seat of government for a term of twenty years. 
From outside reports it appears that when this subject was 



310 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

being considered by the convention, two points were contem- 
plated and debated upon. One was Carlyle, just located 
on the Kaskaskia River by two Virginia gentlemen ; the 
other an elevated spot, higher up the river, known as Pope's 
Bluff", the property of Nathaniel Pope. Ford writes: 

" He [Pope] and his friends were, of course, extremely anxious 
that the seat of government should be located there, while the pro- 
prietors of Carlyle were fully as desirous that their position should 
find favor. In midst of the discussion which ensued over these 
conflicting interests, a well-known hunter and trapper, named 
Reeves, who had a lonely cabin still higher up the river, wandered 
in, and became deeply interested. In glowing terms he depicted 
the superior beauty of Reeve's Bluffs, insisting warmly that ' Pope's 
Bluff, er Carlyle neither, wasn't a primin' ter his bluff.' Such was 
the force of his representations that the language of the original 
bill was sufficiently altered to admit of his site. Strange to say, 
when, in i8i8, commissioners were finally appointed to select the 
land which had been granted by Congress they fixed upon the home 
of the old hunter at Reeve's Bluff." 

It was, indeed, a most attractive spot, a heavily wooded 
tract, covered by gigantic trees, well elevated, and sightly. 
The only seeming disadvantage of this position for the 
State capital was, that, at that early day, it was in the midst 
of an almost untouched wilderness, lying considerably north- 
east of the principal settlements of the country. However, 
with abundant faith in the future, work upon the new site 
was at once begun, and the town laid out with a handsome 
square and broad streets. Governor Ford records : 

" After the place had been selected, it became a matter of great 
interest to give it a good-sounding name, one which would please 
the ear, and at the same time have the classic merit of perpetuating 
the memory of the ancient race of Indians by whom the country 
had first been inhabited. Tradition says that a wag who was pres- 
ent suggested to the commissioners that the Vandals were a power- 
ful nation of Indians who once inhabited the banks of the Kas- 
kaskia River, and that ' Vandalia,' formed from their name, would 



THE STORT OF THE CAPITAL 311 

perpetuate the memory of that extinct but renowned people. 
The suggestion pleased the commissioners, the name was adopted, 
and they thus proved that the name of their new city (if they were 
fit representatives of their constituents) would better illustrate the 
character of the modern than the ancient inhabitants of the 
country." 

Indeed, the first workmen on the site were sufficiently 
vandals to cut down and saw into cord-wood every one of 
those magnificent forest trees, leaving not a single specimen 
to sigh in the Summer wind, or bend to the blast. 

In Judge Caton's address reviewing these interesting 
events, he says of this new town • 

" Lots were sold at public auction on credit, at fabulous 
prices, few of which were paid in full. The enterprising and 
scheming came to it, some from the Old World, and soon the 
nucleus of a town was formed. Measures were inaugurated for 
the erection of a State House, which culminated in a plain two- 
story frame building, of rude architecture, set upon a rough stone 
foundation, and placed in the centre of the square, the lower floor 
of which was devoted to a passage and stairway to the upper story, 
and a large, plain room, devoid of ornament (for the accommoda- 
tion of the House). The upper floor was divided into two rooms, 
the largest for the accommodation of the Senate, and the smaller 
one for the office of Secretary of State, the Auditor and Treasurer 
occupying a detached building, hired for that purpose. No cere- 
monies were observed in laying the corner-stone of this unsightly 
. structure ; no music disturbed the solitude of the forest, then in its 
primeval beauty; no crowd in pageantry lent excitement to the 
scene ; no sound was heard save the rap of the mason's hammer, 
and the sharp clicks of the trowel." 

Soon after this indifferent building was completed, final 
steps were taken for the removal of the seat of government 
from old Kaskaskia, where, under French, English, and 
American rule, it had been located for more than one hun- 
dred and fifty years. In one small wagon, and at a single 
load, the entire State archives were transported to Vandalia. 



312 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Undoubtedly, much of great historical value was lost at this 
time. Sidney Breese, clerk to the Secretary of State, and 
Mr. Kane, had them in charge, and the road being poor, at 
several points a path had to be cut through the woods. 
When they arrived at the new Capitol, they found the building 
occupied as a temporary home by the Auditor, Elijah C. 
Berry, with his family. These, however, were soon induced 
to remove to an adjacent cabin, and a little later, the first 
session of the legislature convened at Vandalia. This struc- 
ture in which they met was totally destroyed by fire, breaking 
out at 2 A. M., December 9, 1823. '^^ rapidly did the flames 
spread, that not a single article of furniture was saved. Be- 
sides most important State documents, some of inestimable 
value, all the books, and papers belonging to the office of 
the United States Land Receiver, were likewise destroyed. 
The cause of the fire was never ascertained. A subscription 
paper was immediately started, to which the citizens of 
Vandalia contributed liberally, and in three days three 
thousand dollars was raised. To take the place of this 
destroyed capitol, a commodious brick building was con- 
structed, which still stands, for many years containing the 
county offices for Fayette County. It may be of interest 
to note, in this connection, the pay of State officials at this 
time. The salaries of the Governor and the supreme 
judges were one thousand dollars each; Secretary of State 
and Auditor, five hundred dollars; all payable quarterly. 
The allowance to legislators per diem, was four dollars, 
while presiding officers received five dollars. 

Long before the twenty-year term assigned to Vandalia 
had expired, numerous ambitious cities throughout the State 
were in the field, anxious to be selected as the new and per- 
manent capital. Under the pressure thus constantly exerted 
for a change, a commission was appointed to consider the 
matter, and, when a new legislature was being voted for, the 
people themselves were requested to express their preference 



THE STORY OF THE CAPITAL 



313 



at the ballot-box regarding the six different cities diligently 
seeking the choice. Much interest was taken, the result of 
the vote being as follows: Alton, 7,514; Vandalia, 7,148; 
Springfield, 7,044; the geographical centre (Illiopolis), 744; 
Peoria, 486; Jacksonville, 272. This election was held 
in August, 1834, and from its results Alton was plainly 
designated as the choice of the majority of the voters. But 
it requires something more than votes to construct a capi- 
tal; the legislature took no action, and consequently noth- 
ing resulted. But the question of removal would not down, 
and it became more and more plainly apparent that the un- 
fortunate situation of Vandalia made it impossible to retain 
the seat of State government at that place much longer. 
In those days of overland journeys, it was convenient to 
comparatively few, and becoming less so with every year, 
because of the increase of immigration northward. 

Springfield, greatly encouraged by the unexpectedly 
large vote received in 1834, never let up in agitating the mat- 
ter of a change; and two years later there was in the House 
a delegation from Sangamon County of unusual influence 
and ability. The delegates were nine in number, popularly 
known as the " long nine " because they averaged six feet 
in height, some more and some less — there being precisely 
fifty-four feet in their combined stature. These men 
were able, persistent, and dextrous political manipulators, 
a unit upon all questions appertaining to the welfare of 
Sangamon, and they pushed the Capital bill strongly for the 
benefit of Springfield. These men were: A. G. Herndon 
and Job Fletcher, Senators ; Representatives, Abraham 
Lincoln, Ninian W. Edwards, Dan Stone, John Dawson, 
W. F. Elkin, Andrew McCormick, and Robert L. Wilson. 
By February 28, 1837, they had actually forced the reluctant 
legislature to final action, and a vote was taken much after 
the manner followed in the selection of United States Sena- 
tors. Twenty-nine places were presented and voted upon- 



314 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Springfield started with thirty-five votes, but on the fourth 
ballot it reached seventy-three, which was a strong majority. 
The location having thus been definitely determined, fifty 
thousand dollars was at once appropriated for the erection 
of a State House on the new site, but the act was to be null 
and void unless an equal amount should be subscribed by 
individuals prior to May i. Springfield agreed to donate two 
acres of ground, in addition, without expense to the State. 
This being satisfactorily arranged by the date set, the legis- 
lature met first in Springfield (in extraordinaiy session) 
December 9, 1839; but as the new Capitol was then far from 
being completed, the House convened in the Second Pres- 
byterian Church, and the Senate in the First Methodist, 
which was an old frame structure. The Supreme Court 
held its sessions in the Episcopal Chapel. 

It was not until the War of 18 12 that the attractions and 
fertility of what has since been named Sangamon County 
began to be known to the earlier Illinois settlers, who up to 
that date had hardly penetrated north of Madison County, 
excepting along the rivers. 

The Indian name applied to all this region was ** San- 
gamo," meaning "the country where there is plenty to eat," 
and the volunteers marching wearily across it in Edwards's 
advance to Peoria Lake, on returning home, scattered widely 
among their neighbors vivid descriptions of the beauty of 
this newly discovered land. The " St. Gamo Kedentry," 
as it was pronounced in the vernacular, immediately became 
famous, and scarcely had the war ceased before hardy, ad- 
venturous settlers began to erect their little log cabins along 
the timbered streams. In the Autumn of 18 19, a family 
of emigrants, originally from North Carolina, by the name 
of Kelly, encamped on the right bank of Spring Creek, in 
the western part of the present city of Springfield. Here 
they decided upon making their future home, and thus be- 
came the earliest settlers. Two years later, the county was 



r 
O 



H 
> 

w 
O 

a 

en 




THE SrORT OF THE CAPITAL 315 

organized, the county seat being fixed at Kelly's; and in 
recognition of his field and Spring Creek, — at least so the 
story goes, — the embryo city was given its rather unhappy 
name of Springfield. Even in this choice of a county seat 
the fate of the future capital hung for a while in the bal- 
ance, and was finally decided by a somewhat dubious trick, 
according to a volume of the " Springfield City Ordi- 
nances." A previous election to the legislature had turned 
entirely upon this question of location. W. S. Hamilton, 
son of the great Alexander Hamilton, favored Sangamo 
Town, a beautiful elevated bluff on the river, in which he 
was personally interested, lying seven miles northwest. 
Jonathan H. Pugh was the Springfield candidate, and Ham- 
ilton, receiving the majority of votes, was elected. It seemed 
then as if Springfield's hopes were finally doomed, but, as a 
last resort, a sufficient fund was raised, and the defeated 
candidate, Pugh, despatched to Vandalia to labor in the 
lobby. So well did he perform this task that Hamilton not 
only failed to get his beloved Sangamo Town named as 
county seat, but a legislative committee was appointed to 
visit both sites and decide on a location. The committee 
chanced to reach Springfield first; were most royally enter- 
tained by the hopeful citizens, and loaded into carriages to 
be driven to Sangamo Town. It is to be feared the drivers 
selected were rabid Springfield partisans, as they chose a 
road leading across much low, wet land, through sloughs 
and mudholes. The way became particularly horrible as 
they drew closer to the proposed site, and in utter disgust 
the committee left the ambitious Sangamo to its former 
obscurity. 

At the time of the selection of Springfield as the future 
State capital, the village contained a population of 1,100, 
and was little more than a straggling frontier hamlet, the 
buildings small and unpretentious. The corner-stone of 
the State Building was laid July 4, 1837, E. D. Baker being 



3i6 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

the orator of the occasion. The estimated cost of the 
structure was only $130,000, but, as usual in such cases, the 
actual cost was nearly one hundred per cent more. At first 
it was the wonder of all the country around, settlers travelling 
for long distances merely to gaze upon it in speechless awe, 
but this feeling, before many years, died away, as the citizens 
began to realize that it was far from being large enough to 
meet the fast-growing requirements of the State. In less 
than a quarter of a century, public demand was aroused for 
a new building. Population had increased marvellously, — 
in 1840 to 476,183; in 1865 to 2,141,510. It was during 
the legislative session of this last-mentioned year that a bill 
was introduced advocating the removal of the seat of gov- 
ernment to Peoria. Other cities began at once to join in 
the clamor, urging their own superior claims, and Spring- 
field became justly alarmed. Much dissatisfaction with 
existing conditions was in evidence all over the State, but it 
apparently centred in Springfield's miserable hotel accom- 
modation and exorbitant charges. 

The citizens of the capital city rose to the emergency, 
building the magnificent Leland Hotel, and, at the next 
legislative meeting, made to the State most liberal offers'; 
the county of Sangamon agreed to purchase the old State 
House and square for $200,000, to be converted into a court- 
house, while the city council offered a seven-acre lot, in the 
very heart of the city, at a cost of $62,000, as a site for the 
new Capitol. Feeling ran extremely high, and the ladies 
of Springfield thronged the visitors' gallery, and vied with 
each other in extending social courtesies to the legislators. 
With all these latter gentlemen, at last, apparently in a 
proper frame of mind for favorable action, a bill for a 
new State House to be erected at Springfield was diplomat- 
ically introduced, and finally forced to a passage, February 
25, 1867. It limited the cost of the new Capitol to $3,000,000. 
This result, however, was not accomplished without oppo- 



THE STORT OF THE CAPITAL 317 

sition and extended debate; one extremely humorous speech 
by Mr. Voris advocated the dislocation of the Capitol, and 
the holding of a peregrinating legislature by railroad, which 
should stop at every place where a notice appeared that it 
was wanted. 

The work of building was hurriedly begun; but oppo- 
sition throughout the State was far from being dead, and 
much delay was occasioned by the acts of rival cities, and the 
unwillingness of the legislature to be liberal in expenditure. 
Decatur sued out a writ of quo warranto directed against 
the building commissioners, and the case was threshed out 
in the Supreme Court to Decatur's final defeat. The con- 
stant necessity of increasing appropriations to meet the cost 
of construction led Peoria to make a munificent offer for the 
seat of government — she pledged herself to reimburse the 
State to the full amount already expended, donate a beau- 
tiful ten-acre lot, and furnish, free of rent for five years, suit- 
able accommodation for the legislature. This offer aroused 
the interest of the State to fever heat, and the two houses 
accepted a free excursion to Peoria, where they were royally 
entertained by the enthusiastic citizens, and carefully shown 
every point of interest thereabout. For a time the fate of 
Springfield hung once more trembling in the balance, every- 
thing resting upon the passing of the appropriation bill. 
This was fought to the last possible moment with great 
bitterness and with every device known to parliamentary 
law; but, finally, at ten o'clock at night, June 7, 1871, it 
was passed by a vote of one hundred to seventy-four. 
Peoria's apple of hope was turned to ashes, and Springfield 
remained the capital of Illinois. The Capitol Building 
was completed in 1887, at a cost of over 1^4,000,000. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE BATTLE AGAINST SLAVERY 

AS far back as 1720 the spectre of the black slave began 
to cast its baleful shadow across the Illinois country. 
Previous to that date a few^ red slaves, prisoners of either 
war or debt, were held in bondage among the French colo- 
nists, yet the number w^as small, and would never have 
proven of any political consequence. It remained for Re- 
nault, business agent for the "Company of St. Philippe" to 
bring here the first African slaves, and thus lay the found- 
ation for a bitter struggle, destined to last for more than one 
hundred years. Renault left France in 17 19 with a cargo 
of mechanics, miners, and laborers, numbering some two 
hundred, and on his way stopped long enough at San 
Domingo to purchase five hundred black slaves. Accom- 
panied by this extensive company, he voyaged slowly up the 
Mississippi, finally arriving in Illinois, where he established 
headquarters at the village of St. Philippe, in what is now the 
southeast corner of Monroe County. From there his parties 
of prospectors scattered widely, in a vain effort to locate 
precious mineral. In 1744, completely discouraged by lack 
of success in his mining ventures, he returned to France, 
but before going sold his remaining slaves to the surround- 
ing French colonists. 

By French law, under date of April 23, 16 15, slavery in 
the American colonies had been duly legalized, and later, by 
the terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the French inhab- 
itants of Illinois were by England confirmed in their right 
to this species of property. When the United States came 
into possession of all this territory in 1784, the following 

318 



THE BATTLE AGAINST SLA VERT 319 

stipulation in the deed of cession was naturally construed 
to imply the continuation of such enslavement, and practi- 
cally so resulted: " That the French and Canadian inhabi- 
tants, and other settlers of the Kaskaskias, St. Vincents, 
and the neighboring villages, w^ho have professed themselves 
citizens of the State of Virginia, shall have their possessions 
and titles confirmed to them, and be protected in the enjoy- 
ment of their rights and liberties." Later, when this question 
came up directly before Congress, in a bill providing " that 
after the year 1800 there shall be neither slavery nor invol- 
untary servitude in any of the said States," to be formed 
out of this territory, it met with decisive defeat. At this 
time Indiana Territory, which included the Illinois country, 
contained a slave population of one hundred and thirty- 
three. In 1810, Illinois Territory alone had one hundred 
and sixty-eight slaves; in 1820, nine hundred and seventeen, 
probably including indentured and registered servants; and 
by 1830 these totalled seven hundred and forty-six. 

The situation of Illinois, as well as the character and 
training of the earlier settlers, were alike conducive to the 
extension of slavery, at least throughout the more southern 
counties. Hence through all the earlier days it flourished, 
but was finally checked by a strong opposition sentiment 
sweeping down from the North, brought by incoming set- 
tlers from New England. It seems strange now that this 
pro-slavery sentiment was not even more strong and abiding 
than it proved to be in time of final test. Geographically, 
Illinois projects far southward, and during all the earlier 
years she was in direct commercial contact with slave States; 
her first and more influential settlers came from such States, 
while the soil was adapted to the production of crops mak- 
ing profitable slave labor. To south and west were situated 
slave Territories, while Southern Indiana was strongly pro- 
slavery, both in sentiment and practice. Yet, from the first 
incoming of American pioneers, anti-slavery advocates were 



320 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

very much in evidence, and an earnest effort was made 
toward anchoring IHinois among the free States. Both 
parties took the matter to Congress, besides bringing it up 
in various forms before the legislature; but for a number of 
years no important change was effected, and Illinois practi- 
cally remained pro-slavery. Not until as late as 1845 ^^^ 
the rightfulness to hold slaves in Illinois directly passed 
upon by any State Supreme Court. The first decision bear- 
ing upon this question occurred in Indiana. In this case 
the mother of the plaintiff had been a slave in Virginia, 
was removed to Illinois before the Ordinance of 1787, the 
sixth article of which prohibited slavery in those territories 
lying northwest of the Ohio River, held in bondage there 
both before and after its passage, and there the plaintiff was 
born after that date. It was held that she was free. The 
second case was passed upon by the Missouri Supreme 
Court, it being the case of Menard vs. Aspasia. The mother 
of the latter was born in Illinois before the ordinance, and 
held as a slave from birth. Aspasia, born after the ordin- 
ance at Kaskaskia, was likewise held as a slave. The 
Missouri Court held that she was entitled to freedom; upon 
a writ of error the question reached the United States 
Supreme Court, and its decision was similar — slaves born 
since the Ordinance of 1787 could not be held in slavery 
in Illinois. In 1845 this question came squarely before the 
Illinois Supreme Court in the case of Jarrot vs. Jarrot, 
when it was decided that descendants of the old French 
slaves born since 1787 could not be held in slavery. Many 
other similar decisions followed, which largely cleared the 
air, and aided ultimate freedom. 

In the years between these dates a continuous and bitter 
warfare had raged over this important matter. Partially es- 
topped by Congressional enactment, the advocates of slavery 
in Illinois resorted to various expedients to avoid the law, 
the most effective of which found expression in a Terri- 



THE BATTLE AGAINST SLAVERY 321 

torial enactment passed in September, 1807, which permitted 
slaveholders to have duly recorded an indenture between 
themselves and their slaves for a term of years, the children 
of said indentured slaves likewise to serve, the males until 
thirty, the females until twenty-eight years of age. Such 
servants might also be sold by an assignment of the indenture, 
thus practically making their condition one of absolute 
bondage, while technically avoiding the precise language 
of the Congressional ordinance. It is impossible here to 
follow in any specific detail the various subterfuges adopted 
from time to time to avoid what seemingly was the plain 
law of the land; courts were invoked, and legislatures con- 
vened for the sole purpose of handling this one absorbing 
question; but in the path of all further reform stood the 
absolute veto power of the Governor, and, on this matter. 
Governor Edwards, who was himself the owner of a number 
of indentured slaves, never failed to act promptly. Through 
these methods of administration the indentured slave be- 
came a recognized institution in Illinois, the slaves steadily 
decreasing in numbers, it is true, yet the institution was 
never wholly abolished until the adoption of the Consti- 
tution of 1848. 

The " Black Laws," as adopted by the legislature in 
18 19, were very stringent, not to say barbarous. No negro 
or mulatto could reside in the State until he produced a 
certificate of freedom under court seal, which must be entered 
of record in the county where he settled. If he changed 
residence, the certificate had to be refiled. To emancipate 
slaves, an owner was required to execute a bond of one 
thousand dollars; neglecting to do this rendered him liable 
to a fine of two hundred dollars. To harbor any slave, or 
hinder the owner in retaking his runaway slave, was declared 
a felony; every black without proper certificate was held 
as a runaway subject to arrest, and could be publicly sold 
at the end of a year. Any slave, or servant, found ten miles 



322 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

from home without the written permit of his master was 
liable to arrest, and could be whipped on order of a justice; 
or if he appeared at any dwelling, without leave of his master, 
the owner of the place thus visited was authorized to admin- 
ister ten lashes on his bare back. For being lazy, disorderly, 
or misbehaving generally, he could be corrected with stripes, 
and for every day he refused to work he was compelled to 
serve two. In all cases where free persons were punishable 
by fines, slaves and indentured servants were to be chas- 
tised by whipping, at the rate of twenty lashes for every 
eight dollars of fine, not to exceed forty stripes at any one 
time. Thus was the free State of Illinois provided with a 
complete slave code. 

The most odious feature of this entire slave code, how- 
ever, was the kidnapping clause, which, unfortunately, 
had been so worded as to make capture and punishment 
for this crime almost impossible. The inevitable result in 
so new a country, overrun with desperate men, many of 
them criminally inclined, was to make such kidnapping of 
free negroes and indentured servants a regular and profit- 
able business. They were seized everywhere by force, or 
inveigled by strategy upon river boats, and taken South into 
the cotton States, to be sold to the highest bidder. No 
crime can be greater or more revolting than this, yet for 
many years southern Illinois afforded a safe retreat to these 
kidnapping outlaws, who became more and more numerous 
and bold. In some instances they were organized into 
regular bands, having rendezvous and passwords, leaders, 
and methods of distributing the spoils of their nefarious 
trade in human suffering. The rough hill country lying 
between the Ohio and the Mississippi witnessed in those 
days much of crime and sorrow never to be recorded. Very 
few case, indeed, ever found permanent mention. The 
earliest conviction for this crime was that of Jephtha Lamb- 
kins, in Madison County, November, 1822, but the details 



THE BATTLE AGAINST SLAVERY 323 

have not been preserved. On the night of May 25, 1823, 
a free colored man named Jackson Butler, his wife, and six 
children, residing in Illinois, a fev^ miles from Vincennes, 
were kidnapped by a band of raiders from Lawrence County, 
in this State. Butler had belonged to Governor Harrison 
in Kentucky, had been brought to Indiana, had been in- 
dentured, and had faithfully worked out his term of service. 
His wife was born free, which rendered the children also 
free. They were taken down the Wabash to the Ohio, and 
from there disappeared farther South. Harrison, learning 
of the outrage, at once offered a large reward for the capture 
of the perpetrators. His name gave the matter wide pub- 
licity, and the Butlers were rescued at New Orleans, just 
as they were about to be shipped to Cuba. 

This was merely one out of hundreds of similar instances, 
although few had so satisfactory an ending. The entire 
southern portion of the State was overrun by professional 
kidnappers, and free negroes were kept in constant terror. 
The Shawneetown *' Mercury," as late as 1851, contains an 
account of a peculiar case illustrative of the class of men en- 
engaged at this work. A Mrs. Prather, of Tennessee, eman- 
cipated her slaves, and the latter removed to Gallatin County, 
Illinois. They were followed by a party of kidnappers, who 
conspired for their arrest as fugitive slaves. Judge Pope, of 
the United States Circuit Court, before whom the case came, 
decided that the Tennesseeans had not a shadow of a claim 
to them. While endeavoring to get hold of these negroes, a 
well-known Kentucky kidnapper, named Newton E. Wright, 
came to this State, and became acquainted with two lUi- 
noisans in the same trade, — Joe O'Neal, of Hamilton 
County, and Abe Thomas. A little later, O'Neal stole 
three children from a negro named Scott, living in that 
county, ran them off, and sold them, partly on credit, to 
Wright, who immediately resold them to one Phillips at 
New Madrid. When O'Neal's note matured he sent Abe 



324 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Thomas to collect, telling him that Wright had some other 
business for him to attend to, for. which he would be well 
paid. Arriving at Wright's, the desperado was offered 
one hundred and fifty dollars to go to Hicco, Tennessee, 
and kill a Dr. Swayne, who had sued Wright on a note. 
This job was undertaken, and Thomas went to Hicco, 
gained Swayne's confidence, and endeavored to carry out 
his contract, but merely succeeded in fracturing the Doctor's 
arm by a hasty shot fired from behind. Thomas escaped, 
although closely pursued. A year later, an unexpected clew 
to the discovery of the felon was obtained. Two residents 
of White County, Illinois, chanced to meet Dr. Swayne, and 
heard him describe the man who shot him as having a nose 
flat at the base, projecting forward like a hawk's bill. These 
Illinoisans at once recognized Abe Thomas, and a short 
time afterwards the fellow was seized by a party of Tennes- 
seeans, taken to that State, tried, and convicted. 

In 1824 ^ desperate effort was made to change Illinois 
into an openly slave State. There can be little question 
that from 18 18 until this date, whenever the voice of the 
people found expression, they were strongly in favor of 
slavery. The subject was constantly kept astir, not only by 
local agitators, but by the continuous stream of Southern 
emigrants passing through on their way to Missouri. Many 
who had lands and property to sell looked upon the good 
fortune of Missouri with envy, while the lordly immigrant, 
as he passed along with his money and droves of negroes, 
took a malicious pleasure in increasing it, by pretending to 
regret the short-sighted policy of Illinois, which prevented 
him from settling there with his slaves, and purchasing the 
land travelled over. This growing dissatisfaction culmi- 
nated in the fierce election contest of 1822, when slavery 
was practically the one great issue upon which votes were 
cast. Edward Coles was elected Governor by a small 
majority. He was openly opposed to slavery, and thus, 



THE BATTLE AGAINST SLAVERY 325 

apparently, the anti-slavery party won; but this was accom- 
plished merely because there chanced to be two pro-slavery 
candidates in the field, — Phillips and Brown, — and the 
total pro-slavery vote polled was nearly two thousand in 
excess of that given Coles. Moreover, the legislature elected 
was strongly pro-slavery, and counteracted the best efforts 
of the executive. 

The two radically opposed parties locked horns almost 
immediately, Governor Coles directing attention to this im- 
portant question in his first communication to the assembled 
Legislature, and in clear, forcible language urging immediate 
emancipation. This served merely to fan into flame all 
opposition, and the pro-slavery advocates, confident in their 
apparent strength, determined then and there to fasten 
slavery permanently upon the State. There was but one 
legal way in which this could be accomplished — by an 
amendment to the Constitution. To attain this required 
first a two-thirds vote in each house passing the proposition 
submitting the question to a final vote of the people. In 
the Senate, this necessary two-thirds was easily found, but 
in the House just one vote proved to be lacking. To remedy 
this, an anti-slavery member, Nicholas Hanson, of Pike 
County, was unseated, and a contestant for his position, 
in the person of John B. Shaw, promptly given his place. 
His vote, thus easily secured, carried the day; but the un- 
scrupulous manner in which it had been acquired later 
proved a boomerang, and contributed largely to influence 
the people in their decision at the polls. There followed a 
most desperately bitter campaign for votes, lasting nearly 
eighteen months, conducted violently by both parties through- 
out the entire inhabited portion of the State. In some re- 
spects the pro-slavery element had, at the start at least, a 
decided advantage because of the unequal apportionment 
of the State into representative and senatorial districts, 
pro-slavery sentiment being peculiarly strong in the old 



326 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

French settlements and along the Ohio, while farther north 
the people were numerically far in advance of the ratio of 
representation accorded them. The anti-slavery leaders 
perceived clearly that if they were to win at all it must be 
through the direct vote of the people, for if the question 
should be ever left with a chosen convention of delegates 
as the districts were then apportioned, slavery would un- 
questionably be fastened upon the State. Nerved by this 
knowledge, they devoted every effort to defeat the conven- 
tion call before the people. 

Never was such a canvass before made in the State. 
Young and old, without regard to sex, entered madly 
into the party strife; families and neighborhoods became 
divided, and entered into bitter, and at times violent, 
controversy. Detraction, personal abuse, acrimonious re- 
torts were heard everywhere, and hand-to-hand combats 
were frequent. The entire country was on the verge 
of a resort to physical force to settle the angry question, 
and both threats and open intimidation were freely indulged. 
Newspapers were established by both parties to the contro- 
versy, and their columns teemed with incendiary utterances. 
Pamphlets were published and scattered broadcast; Gov- 
ernor Coles gave his entire salary to the cause; under the 
leadership of the Rev. Dr. Peck, anti-slavery societies were 
organized throughout the State, the headquarters being in 
St. Clair County. The ministers of the gospel took active 
part in the canvass, for the moment forgetting their theo- 
logical differences to unite against this one great sin. Tracts 
and handbills fluttered everywhere, and almost every stump 
held an impassioned orator, while the rank and file of the 
people wrangled and argued wherever they met. All com- 
merce ceased, all work waited, while this great question was 
being fought out to a finish. 

A glance over the array of names prominent in this cam- 
paign makes it evident that the more talented, influential, 



3- ?s?S-5.SH 

•<3 ^? o 3 5.H 3 g " 

a" i2 "^ ^' " " =■ §_ '^ 5' 

:5: B C« ra o, 3 ^ -p; r-'<: - 



a)(;lI|P'''''''^'^^tn, 



> 






n 


0^5:- = ^.50-:— u 




CO 








a- -, ^ i^ y. _..^ S ^ ^ 




1— 1 

O 


2 D '-i rt 1:..:: 7 i = g 


z 

PI 

> 

33 


2: 


•• s p = i „ a 


30 


o 


1. =. -. c =- „ g- <■ 


>• 


73 


rH. ;5 -: (3 cr - • 


Z. 





« -1 D • ^ (-, 




o 


^ r. =• 5. -2 '£ j^ J; 


m 


z 

d 




Z 
H 

1- 
1 




?3 
> 


Z 


> 







— '-^ii^--:^— QiJc 




<; 


=^:^r^23s- -'^0 


> 


> 
< 




Z 

a 






> 

-< 


CO 






Z 











THE BATTLE AGAINST SLAVERY 327 

and better-known men then in Illinois public life were 
enlisted on the side of the convention party, but in energy 
and zeal, enthusiasm and determination, the opposition 
proved the stronger. Moreover, they were better organized, 
and enjoyed the advantage of being able to press home on 
the individual conscience a great moral issue, to which 
the minds of the common people made response. Their 
attacks were based directly upon the merits of slavery; 
they dodged nothing, while their opponents endeavored to 
avoid the issue, and befog it. The open, straightforward, 
manly methods of the anti-slavery advocates inspired respect 
everywhere and won votes, while, in spite of aid extended 
to the pro-slavery forces from sympathizers without the 
State, the very length of the campaign was favorable to the 
steady growth of anti-slavery sentiment among the common 
people. On the day of election every possible effort was 
made to poll a complete vote. The aged, the crippled, the 
sick, all who could possibly be induced or even dragged 
from their homes, were brought to the polls. The result 
was that the convention scheme was emphatically defeated 
by some eighteen hundred majority. It was a notable vic- 
tory for the cause of freedom, showing a distinct gain, ex- 
ceeding thirty-five hundred votes over the gubernatorial 
contest of only two years previous. The total vote cast was 
11,612, while at the Presidential election the November fol- 
lowing, the total vote cast was but 4,707. Strange as it may 
seem, the angry feelings engendered by this prolonged and 
bitter contest for supremacy died rapidly away, and six 
months later, it is said, it would have been difficult to find a 
politician in the State who would openly favor the intro- 
duction of slavery. The people's will was supreme. The 
victory thus won decided forever the position of Illinois 
on this momentous question. 

But the liberty of men is more than a political question, 
and can never be settled until it is settled right. Illinois, by 



328 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

this decisive act of her voters, w^as indeed safely removed 
from the list of avowed slave States, but the curse of vir- 
tual slavery yet continued to cast its baleful shadow^ through- 
out the settlements. To the south lay Kentucky, a slave 
State; to the west, Missouri, a slave State, while nearly half 
of her own population were from birth and habit firm be- 
lievers in the *' peculiar institution." Kidnapping of free 
Illinois negroes became a recognized trade, in which many 
prospered. Regular routes were established leading south- 
ward, with convenient stations established along the way, 
by which men, women, and children were hurried into 
slavery. There are times when fire can best be fought with 
fire, and as arriving settlers from the New England States, 
men nurtured in the religion of abolitionism, began to flow 
into the more northern counties, they planned a somewhat 
similar scheme for the running away with colored folks, but 
for a nobler purpose. The Southern kidnappers stole the 
free, to sell them into hopeless slavery; the Northern aboli- 
tionists took the slave from his master and guided him into 
liberty. It was a dangerous service in those days, when the 
feeling between the factions was extremely bitter, and one 
could hardly be certain of the true sentiments of a neighbor. 
Yet little by little a trustworthy chain was formed the entire 
length of the great State ; then another and another, until 
soon after 1835, and from then until the breaking out of the 
Civil War, an almost constant stream of black fugitives was 
passing along from station to station of the famous " Under- 
ground Railway " to ultimate safety in far-ofF Canada. We 
know little regarding those old secret routes now ; they have 
left only dim traces, although a few hoary-headed men yet 
linger, who can tell thrilling stories of that little section on 
which they once faithfully served. It may be none were ac- 
quainted with the entire distance traversed ; certain it is that 
all that any station-keeper needed to know was the location 
of the next station lying east or north of his own. The 





FROM A RARE SILHOUETTE PORTRAIT 



THE BATTLE AG J IN ST SLAVE RT 329 

fugitives came to him in the dark hours before dawn ; all that 
day they lay hidden securely from prying eyes, and when 
night again darkened he led them swiftly onward to another 
similar place of safety. No record was ever kept of the 
number that passed, but many a hundred, including men, 
women, and children, thus won their weary way to free- 
dom across the night-enshrouded prairies of Illinois. One 
old settler in Knox County, pointing the present writer to 
the great attic in his quaintly fashioned house, said that often 
he had hidden there more than twenty fugitives. Some- 
times it was but one, trudging painfully along on foot, to be 
followed a few nights later by a trembling band loaded upon 
lumbering wagons. 

We know little of the details ; it is doubtful if anyone now 
living could accurately trace the old routes along which these 
fleeing blacks travelled in the dark. There were three of 
these secret trails leading out from Missouri, across Illinois 
— one starting at St. Louis, and veering north until it in- 
tersected another having its western terminus at Alton, from 
which point it tended north of east, probably never far 
away from the present line of the Big Four Railway. A 
third route led directly northeast from Quincy, passing 
through Knox, Henry, Bureau, and La Salle Counties on its 
way toward Lake Michigan. Galesburg in Knox, then 
Wethersfield in Henry County, were stations on this line, the 
next beyond being Princeton in Bureau, thirty-six miles 
distant. 

Out of such conflicting interests as slavery engendered, 
from the suspicion rampant on all sides, and the intense 
bitterness of party strife, the mob spirit was naturally born. 
Violence was not uncommon during all of these formative 
years, and occasionally the smouldering fire burst forth into 
dangerous flame. Neighborhoods, churches, even families, 
were divided; the very word " Abolitionist " was hated by 
many lovers of liberty; yet so subtly did the spirit of aboli- 



330 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

tionism creep in that no man felt certain of his nearest neigh- 
bor. Suspicion filled the air, and stimulated men to acts 
which under saner conditions would have been impossible. 
Such, we may safely say, led to the Alton riots and the 
death of Elijah P. Lovejoy. This occurred in the Fall of 
1837, soon after the formation in upper Alton, at the house 
of the Rev. Mr. Hurlbut, of the first openly avowed Aboli- 
tion Society in the State. Mr. Lovejoy, who may justly be 
named Illinois's first martyr to liberty, came to Alton from 
St. Louis, July 21, 1836. He was then thirty-four years of 
age, and had been for three years editor of a paper in the 
latter city, in the columns of which he had so fearlessly ex- 
pressed anti-slavery views, as to make it necessary for him 
to flee from the place by night. Determined to be heard, he 
shipped his press to Alton, where he proposed reestablishing 
himself. It chanced to be Sunday, and consequently his 
goods were left lying unguarded on the wharf, no one sup- 
posing any trouble would occur. That night the boxes were 
broken open, and the printing-press was thrown into the 
river. 

This act aroused great indignation in Alton, and a meet- 
ing of protest was held in the Presbyterian Church, at which 
Mr. Lovejoy and others spoke. In this address the declara- 
tion was clearly made that he was not an Abolitionist, but 
looked to colonization as the best means of ridding the 
country of the curse of slavery. He stated his desire to es- 
tablish a religious paper in Alton, and used language which 
his listeners interpreted to be a personal pledge that its 
columns should be kept free from all future discussion of the 
slavery question. As a direct result of this meeting, funds 
were raised, another press was sent for, and on September 8, 
1836, the first number of the Alton " Observer " was issued. 
It was a success from the start, and soon gained a wide cir- 
culation, but it was not long before its editor again boldly 
attacked slavery. It could hardly be otherwise in that day 




LOVEjOY MONUMENT, ALTON 



THE BATTLE AGAINST SL AVERT 331 

when no true man could long remain neutral or indifferent. 
In the issue of June 29, 1837, he favored a petition for the 
abolishing of slavery in the District of Columbia, and in the 
next advocated the organizing of an anti-slavery society in 
Illinois. A committee communicated with the editor, warn- 
ing him to desist, to which he replied somewhat tartly, deny- 
ing the right of anyone to dictate to him what he should 
discuss, and offering them the use of his columns to answer 
his arguments. 

They chose, however, a different method, and on the night 
of August 25 a mob suddenly stormed down upon the office, 
wrecked it with bricks and stones, drove out the employees, 
and completely demolished the press. The anti-slavery 
party at once rallied about their champion, and a third press 
was sent for; but when it arrived in September, Mr. Love- 
joy chanced to be away, and it was immediately seized by 
another mob, and promptly thrown into the river. Again 
and again during these weeks of continued excitement the 
life of the editor was threatened, and twice he was the victim 
of vicious assaults. But his friends sent for a fourth press, 
and he remained undaunted at his post. 

November 7, 1837, the boat arrived bearing the fourth 
press, which was at once removed to the stone warehouse of 
Godfrey, Gilman & Co. Mr. Lovejoy and a number of 
friends assembled with arms for its defence. No trouble 
occurred until night, when a mob of perhaps thirty persons, 
mostly intoxicated, demanded that the press be surrendered 
to them. Refused this, they at once commenced a fierce 
attack on the building with stones, brickbats, and guns. 
Those within fired, killing one of the mob and wounding 
several others. Soon after, the city bells were rung, horns 
were blown, and a maddened multitude surged down toward 
the besieged warehouse. Ladders were placed against the 
windowless sides, and a number ascended to set fire to the 
roof. Mr. Lovejoy, with a few others of the defenders, fired 



332 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

upon these, and drove them away, returning below to reload 
their guns. Shortly after, he again stepped out on the roof 
to reconnoitre. But this time concealed members of the mob 
were watching ; a number fired, and five bullets entered his 
body. He fell, crying, " My God, I am shot!" and instantly 
expired. With his death, the others surrendered, and the 
mob broke the press into fragments, and flung them into 
the river. 

The day following, a grave was dug on a high bluff, in the 
southern part of the city, and the body, without any religious 
ceremony, was thrown into it and hastily covered up. Some 
years later this spot was chosen as the site of a cemetery, and 
the main avenue chanced to pass over the neglected grave of 
Lovejoy. To obviate the difficulty, his remains were re- 
moved to a new locality, and, later still, a simple monument 
erected over them, bearing the inscription: ''Hie jacet 
Lovejoy; jam parce sepulto." Punishment for his murder 
seemed to follow without human intervention: the leader 
of the mob became a prisoner in the Ohio penitentiary, the 
person most instrumental in the committing of the crime was 
killed in a brawl at New Orleans, while many others are re- 
ported to have ended their lives in violence and disgrace. 

But great questions, like the issue of slavery, are not to be 
settled by mob action. The death of Lovejoy merely fanned 
the flame, and made agitation more aggressive. Illinois be- 
came a battle-ground, nor did the gigantic struggle cease 
until the surrender of the Confederacy at Appomattox. To 
the last, pro-slavery sentiment remained strongly entrenched 
throughout all the southern counties, and from them many a 
volunteer went forth to don the gray and battle for his faith. 
But Illinois stood firm for freedom, and during that awful 
struggle, which broke the last chains from ofi^ the limbs of 
black slaves, she gave of her best manhood 29,588 lives in 
sacrifice. In that hour of supreme trial she saw her duty, 
and performed it. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
THE CODE DUELLO 

UNDOUBTEDLY, personal encounters between Indians 
were never uncommon in the days beyond the reach 
of historical research, and many a desperate combat was 
waged in the Illinois country over some dusky maiden, or 
some grievous injury. But the code duelloy as known to us, 
was introduced with the coming of the Frenchman. They 
were fighting men, those who built and garrisoned Forts St. 
Louis, Chartres, and Massac, and it is scarcely probable 
that all those years of frontier isolation passed without many 
a controversy and bitter word. Yet, few details have come 
down to us. Rumor speaks of a fierce struggle fought with 
knives beside the boat-landing at Massac, but no one can tell 
now the name of either participant. In 1765, when the 
troops of Britain came into possession of Fort Chartres, a 
quarrel is said to have ensued between two young officers, 
one French, the other English. At the bottom of it was a 
bright-eyed lass of Kaskaskia, and for her favor these two 
fought with small swords one Sunday morning, close beside 
the fort. The Englishman was killed, and his opponent 
escaped down the river, but neither name has been pre- 
served. 

• The earlier American settlers, coming in from the more 
southern States, brought with them the duel as the most fit 
mode for settlement of personal difficulties. The lack of law 
in this new region would also, very naturally, inspire each 
man to right his own grievances by force of arms, in a time 
when every settler bore knife at belt and gun at shoulder. 
There is no record of long-standing feuds between families. 



334 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

such as have been a curse to the mountain regions of 
Kentucky and Tennessee; but, amid the rocks of the low 
mountain range of the Ozarks, dark deeds were done, and 
ambuscading parties were not entirely unknown even up to the 
time of the Civil War. So far as the code proper was con- 
cerned, while meetings were frequent, they proved, generally, 
more farcical than serious, and became a source of con- 
tinual ridicule throughout the State, until a fatal encounter 
resulted in a stringent law aimed at putting an end to the 
practice. That fierce and implacable passion, upon which 
the continuation of duelling must rest, never found congenial 
surroundings on Illinois soil, and the custom died rather of 
laughter than of law. 

The first meeting of which we have historic mention 
occurred in 1809, on an island midway between Kaskaskia 
and St. Genevieve. It was itself a bloodless affair, but be- 
came notable because of the angry quarrel growing out of it, 
which later developed into the dastardly assassination of one 
of the principals. This duel was between Rice Jones, a 
young lawyer of great promise, and Shadrach Bond, after- 
wards the first Governor of the State. The controversy be- 
tween the two young men originated over political differences, 
and waxed so warm and personal that a challenge was sent 
and accepted. The weapons were hair-trigger pistols, and 
as the men were taking their positions on the field, the one 
in Jones's hand was accidentally discharged. A quarrel 
thereupon ensued between the seconds. Bond's representa- 
tive claiming that Jones having had one shot, it was now the 
turn of his principal to fire. Bond, however, refused to do 
so, and his manly insistence on fair play so touched Jones 
that the two men immediately became reconciled and quitted 
the field. But this left a bitter feeling existing between 
Jones and Bond's second, who was named Dunlap. Hatred 
grew, until one day, when the former was standing on the 
street in Kaskaskia conversing with a lady, Dunlap crept up 



THE CODE DUELLO 335 

behind, and like a coward shot him down. The murderer 
escaped to Texas, and was never captured, but in 18 10 a law 
was adopted by the Governor and judges making a fatal 
result in a duel murder, and all taking part in it principals 
to the crime. 

Reynolds, in his " History of Early Illinois," makes men- 
tion of another combat between Illinoisans, which occurred 
during the war period of 1812. His words are: "Thomas 
Rector, one of the younger brothers (of the famous pioneer 
Rector family), had a duel with Joshua Barton, on Bloody 
Island, opposite St. Louis, and was as cool in that combat 
as if he were shooting at a deer on the prairie. These young 
men espoused the quarrel of their elder brothers, and Barton 
fell in the conflict." The easy manner in which this meet- 
ing is thus referred to, with its fatal consequences, leaves the 
impression that such combats were not then uncommon in 
spite of the existing law. Bloody Island, which was within 
Illinois jurdisdiction, was for long a convenient and safe 
battle-ground, often resorted to, but the majority frequent- 
ing it were from the Missouri side of the river, especially St. 
Louis. It was this custom that bestowed on the island its 
name of horror. 

The last fatal duel occurring within the State limits was 
fought at Belleville, in February, 18 19, between Alonzo C. 
Stuart and William Bennett. It arose from a drunken 
quarrel, the participants being urged on by their com- 
panions, who desired some wild sport, and to make a butt of 
Bennett. A sham duel was planned, Stuart being informed 
but Bennett kept in the dark. Nathan Fike and Jacob 
Short officiated as seconds, the weapons selected being rifles, 
but these were loaded merely with powder. In the words 
of Davidson and Stuve, whose descriptions largely form the 
basis of this chapter, "The combatants took position at 
forty paces, and at the signal Bennett fired with good aim, 
while, to the horror of all present, Stuart fell, shot in the 



33^ HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

breast, and mortally wounded. The latter, to heighten the 
merriment, had not discharged his piece at all, but Bennett, 
either suspecting some trick, or inspired by malice, had 
secretly slipped a ball into his rifle." The two seconds, 
together with Bennett, were arrested and indicted for mur- 
der. Separate trials being granted, Fike and Short were 
acquitted; but the evidence was so strong against Bennett 
that he broke jail and made his escape into Arkansas. Two 
years later, by means of a rather dishonorable trick, he was 
inveigled back into Illinois, again arrested, tried at a special 
term of court in Belleville, convicted of murder, sentenced, 
and executed. 

In 1829, Galena gave to the State the most unique duel 
ever fought within its limits. Galena at that time was a 
town containing a motley collection of men, represent- 
ing almost every nationality of the civilized world, together 
with a considerable sprinkling of Indians and negroes. On 
Sunday, when the lead-miners were idle, the place was ex- 
ceedingly lively, with preaching of the gospel, dancing, all 
manner of open gambling, and horse-racing under the hill. 
The miners were just the kind to invent a new form of 
duello. This was no less than a fight between two stone- 
throwers, — a desperate struggle, apt to inflict even greater 
injury than the exchange of bullets. The name of only 
one of the participants has been preserved, he being that 
famous ranger, Thomas Higgins, whose Indian battle in 
1812 has already been described. A quarrel between him 
and some unknown borderman resulted in this cruel and 
unusual wager of battle. A pile of stones, carefully assorted 
as to number and size, was placed within easy reach of each 
combatant, and they took their positions, ten paces apart. 
It was a fierce struggle for a moment or two, but proved of 
short duration, for Higgins's adversary soon turned and 
fled for his life. 

All other hostile meetings within the State were of polit- 



THE CODE DUELLO 337 

ical origin, and generally resulted in some ludicrous ending, 
which constantly tended to bring the habit of a resort to 
arms into greater and deserved contempt. Doubtless, such 
farces exercised as marked an influence toward the complete 
suppression of duelling as did the law. The legislative 
session of 1840-41 was filled with bellicose bluster, and fruit- 
ful of numerous " aff^airs of honor," even yet apt to awaken 
a smile as we read of them. So intense was the fighting 
spirit, that one honorable member, Mr. Hacker, solemnly 
moved the suspension of the duelling law for two weeks, to 
accommodate all the doughty and chivalrous gentlemen who 
desired to settle their personal difficulties on the field. The 
special occasion of this was a quarrel between two senators, 
— E. D. Baker and Judge Pearson, — in which the former 
challenged the latter to a " fist-fight " in the public street ; 
this pleasantry the Judge indignantly declined, but expressed 
a willingness to meet with weapons. Numerous challenges 
were exchanged at this time, but, so far as known, no actual 
hostile shots were fired. Sometimes friends interfered, and 
occasionally courts were invoked as a last resort to keep the 
peace, while many a good story was circulated regarding 
the unconscious belligerents, and their warlike propensities 
were turned into themes for jest and laughter. 

In 1842, Abraham Lincoln became involved in one of 
these aflFairs of honor, which is perhaps fairly illustrative 
of a great many others. The origin of this difficulty was 
political. Mr. Lincoln, in an article published in the 
'•Sangamo Journal" of September 2, 1842, made a bitter 
attack on some actions of the State officials, relative to the 
collection of taxes. The article was decidedly rough in lan- 
guage, and written in a jesting style, apt to cut deep. Special 
reference was made to State Auditor Shields, and he was held 
up to ridicule personally, as well as officially. Mr. Shields, 
being of Irish blood, was very easily aroused. Seeking the 
editor of the paper, he demanded the name of the anonymous 



338 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

writer of the objectionable article, and it was given him. 
Notes were interchanged, Shields's note bristling with the 
desire to fight, Lincoln's somewhat defiant in tone, but non- 
committal as to action. Finally, Shields despatched a formal 
challenge, naming General Whiteside as his personal friend, 
to which Lincoln immediately replied, with Dr. Merriman 
as his representative. The two friends met, and secretly 
pledged themselves to agree upon some terms by which a 
hostile meeting should be avoided. To procrastinate as 
much as possible, all parties concerned were persuaded to go 
to Springfield, and then, to prevent arrest (for rumors of the 
coming duel were already afloat in the air), Mr. Lincoln 
departed hurriedly for Jacksonville, leaving written in- 
structions behind for the guidance of his second. 

In this memorandum he explained at some length his 
connection with the article in the " Journal," but disclaimed 
any intention of reflecting personally upon Shields, stating 
that his object was entirely political, and that he possessed 
no personal pique, and knew of no cause for any. If this 
was not satisfactory, and a meeting could not be avoided, 
the arrangements for the fight were to be: 

*' First, Weapons — Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, 
precisely equal in all respects, and such as are now used by the 
cavalry company at Jacksonville. 

"Second, Position — A plank ten feet long, and from nine to 
twelve inches broad, to be firmly fixed on edge on the ground, as 
the line between us, which neither to pass his foot over on forfeit 
of his life. Next a line drawn on the ground on either side of said 
plank and parallel with it, each at the distance of the whole length 
of the sword, and three feet additional from the plank ; and the 
passing of his own such line by either party during the fight shall 
be deemed a surrender of the contest. 

"Third, Time — On Thursday evening at five o'clock, if you 
can get it so; but in no case to be at a greater distance of time 
than Friday evening at five o'clock. 



THE CODE DUELLO 339 

"Fourth, Place — Within three miles of Alton, on the oppo- 
site side of the river, the particular spot to be agreed on by you." 

With our later knowledge of Abraham Lincoln's pro- 
pensities, one is tempted to perceive a joke cropping out in 
the position thus gravely prescribed for the combatants, for 
it looks as though " both v^ere thus placed safely out of 
harm's way, where they could beat the air with their trench- 
ant blades for ever and do no damage." But it might be 
well to remember, in this connection, the unusual length of 
Mr. Lincoln's arm, and feel some sympathy for his op- 
ponent. However, Shields was determined to fight, regard- 
less of terms, and all parties concerned left for the supposed 
field of carnage, taking a physician — Dr. Bledsoe, a most 
suggestive name — along, to minister to the wounded. Later 
a Dr. Hope — possibly selected as an offset to his more 
sanguinary medical brother — joined the party, and the en- 
tire company crossed the river to the safety of the Missouri 
shore. But peace was already hovering in the air above 
them. Outside friends, uniting with the distressed seconds, 
succeeded in harmonizing all difficulties, and the ridiculous 
affair was ended without the exchange of a blow. 

But other complications followed, proving scarcely less 
farcical. Mr. William Butler had officiated during this 
■fiasco as a special friend of Lincoln's. He was strongly 
favorable to a fight, and, immediately upon returning from 
the bloodless field, in his disgust at the result, wrote an 
account of the affair to the "Sangamo Journal," which 
again fired Shields's Milesian blood to fever heat. A chal- 
lenge promptly followed, was as promptly accepted, and 
again Whiteside and Merriman became seconds for an 
" affair." The preliminaries were bloodthirsty enough, 
being submitted at 9 P. M. the same day, October 3, 1842, 
as follows: Time — sunrise the following morning; Place 
— Colonel Robert Allen's farm (a mile north of the State 



340 



HISTORIC ILLINOIS 



House); Weapons — rifles; Distance — one hundred yards. 
It was stipulated that the parties were to stand with their 
right sides toward each other — the rifles to be held in both 
hands horizontally, and cocked, arms extended downwards, 
together with other details. These conditions were in- 
dignantly spurned by Shields's second as palpably unfair; 
both time and place were objected to, while it was claimed 
the position to be assumed gave Butler a decided advantage, 
he being left-handed. The seconds failed to find each 
other during the night, and consequently no meeting took 
place the following morning ; as a result Butler decided the 
matter closed, thus ending the aflPair. 

Yet, in one sense, it was not even yet done with, for now 
the two seconds, Merriman and Whiteside, promptly broke 
out. Whiteside's reply to Merriman's challenge on behalf 
of Butler had been so curt and abrupt in its language as to 
arouse that gentleman's animosity to the fighting-point. A 
letter, so expressed as to be tantamount to a challenge, was 
at once despatched to Whiteside, the bearer being Abraham 
Lincoln. He brought back a single line, reading: " I have 
to request that you meet me at the Planter's House, in the 
city of St. Louis on next Friday, where you will hear from 
me further." Other notes passed briskly back and forth, 
one man insisting on a meeting at St. Louis, the other 
equally strenuous for Louisiana, Missouri. In this way 
both parties managed to keep at a safe distance from each 
other, until finally the whole controversy died out, and 
from all these bellicose manifestations not a single blow 
was struck nor shot fired. However, the combined "af- 
fairs " added much to the gayety of the State at large ; the 
newspapers of the day commented widely upon them, and 
thus they helped greatly to bring duelling into disrepute. 

During the Mexican War two Illinoisans of promi- 
nence — Drs. Hope and Price — met on the field of honor 
near San Antonio, Texas, and exchanged shots. Price being 



THE CODE DUELLO 341 

badly wounded in the abdomen. But in Illinois proper, so 
far as known, there was but one other attempt to put into 
practice this barbarous method of settling differences, and 
that led directly to fixing in the State Constitution of 1848 
the stringent clause relating to duelling. The two parties 
involved in this affair were O. C. Pratt, from Jo Daviess 
County, and his colleague in the House, Thompson Camp- 
bell. The difficulty between them arose over a political 
question, but intemperate language indulged in upon both 
sides soon brought forth mutual invitations to meet at St. 
Louis, and have the matter out according to the code. Alike 
willing, Campbell put up at the Planter's Hotel, and Pratt 
at the Monroe, while their respective seconds busied them- 
selves with the preliminaries of conflict. Unfortunately for 
the cause of sport, their bloodthirsty purposes were not kept 
sufficiently secret; one Blennerhasset, a St. Louis alder- 
man, made affidavit to the challenge, and late on the night 
preceding the proposed meeting both parties were arrested 
and placed under heavy bonds to keep the peace. It was 
even whispered about the State that this outcome was in 
accordance with a carefully prearranged scheme to attain a 
name for bravery, while running comparatively little danger 
of sustaining personal injury. The gentlemen involved re- 
turned to Illinois, and calmly resumed their interrupted 
legislative duties. 

The Harris-Henry affair, which, however, was one en- 
tirely of words, occurred also about this time, being like- 
wise political in its origin, but harked back to incidents in 
the Mexican War. During the heat of the election campaign 
of 1848, Dr. A. G. Henry delivered a speech at Beardstown, 
in which he charged Major Thomas L. Harris, candidate for 
Congress, with " skulking at the battle of Cerro Gordo ; 
that he could prove this, and would repeat it to his face the 
following week." Harris at once took it up, demanding 
an interview with the Doctor, That gentleman's response to 



342 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

this seemingly natural request was: " I have no business 
with Major Harris, and do not desire a personal interview." 
Harris then demanded that he make good his Beardstown 
statement, to which the Doctor denied having spoken just as 
reported, and offered to refer the matter to a committee, but 
added that he must leave town that morning to keep his 
speaking appointments. Major Harris then proved by four 
good citizens, in a published card, that Henry had made the 
statement in the exact language given, whereupon he de- 
nounced him to the world as a liar, a scoundrel, and a 
coward — and that was the last of the trouble. 

By the old law of the State, as already referred to, the 
penalty for duelling, if the issue proved fatal, was death, the 
same as in a case of murder, but for mere *' affairs " not 
having fatal termination, it was disability for holding any 
office of trust, honor, or emolument, together with small 
fines. There was no restraint, and there had never been a 
conviction for the lesser offence, because the law was easily 
evaded by parties going outside the State to do their fighting. 
The Pratt-Campbell affair, however, was given wide pub- 
licity, and the legislators endeavored to find a remedy, fram- 
ing an oath of office, and incorporating it in the constitution, 
so broad in terms of disfranchisement as to cover not only 
Illinois, but all the world besides. Of course no such juris- 
diction was possible, yet in a moral way it had its appreciable 
effect. This form of oath passed in the convention by a vote 
of seventy-four to forty-four; and it may be remarked that 
both Pratt and Campbell refused to vote, while the still bel- 
ligerent General Whiteside was numbered among the nays. 

Since this passage, with the exception of parties coming 
into the State for the express purpose of settling difficulties 
arising elsewhere, no duels, or attempts at duels, have oc- 
curred in Illinois. Missourians frequently resorted to the 
small islands in the Mississippi for duelling purposes, and a 
number of notable meetings have thus occurred, the most 



THE CODE DUELLO 343 

famous probably being that between Governor Reynolds of 
Missouri and B. Gratz Brown. Duels between Illinois citi- 
zens, or in which former Illinoisans were involved, were 
fought, however, two occurring in California, with fatal 
results. Another meeting, or threatened meeting, was of 
sufficient importance to be given space in this review. It 
occurred under these circumstances : Mr. Bissell, who had 
been Colonel of the Second Illinois Volunteers in Mexico, 
was a new member in Congress, when Mr. Selden, of Vir- 
ginia, in the course of a rather bitter attack on Northern 
courage, awarded the entire credit of saving the day at Buena 
Vista to a Mississippi regiment, of which Jefferson Davis 
had been Colonel. Mr. Bissell promptly took the matter 
up, claiming that special honor for the Second Kentucky, 
Second Illinois, and a portion of the First Illinois Regiments, 
and stating that at the moment referred to the Mississippi 
regiment was not within a mile and a half of the scene of 
action. Determined to crush any Northerner who ventured 
on such boldness, Mr. Davis at once challenged Mr. Bissell. 
To the surprise of the Southern fire-eaters, this challenge was 
immediately accepted. There was not a moment's hesi- 
tancy. The Illinoisan left the preliminaries for friends to 
arrange, stipulating only as to weapons and distance. These 
were common army muskets, loaded with a ball and three 
buckshot; the- combatants to be stationed at forty paces, 
with liberty to advance to ten. This so evidently meant 
business, and a determination to fight to the death, that the 
fire-eaters were thoroughly amazed. Nevertheless, the meet- 
ing was definitely arranged for the following day, February 
28, at an appointed rendezvous. But at a late hour that 
night friends of both parties got together and arranged a 
satisfactory compromise, by having inserted in Mr. Bissell's 
reply to Colonel Davis, in speaking of his command, the 
words, " but I am willing to award to them the credit due 
to their gallant and distinguished services in that battle." 



344 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

This was held as full satisfaction to all concerned, and the 
matter was dropped. 

As late as 1856 another Illinoisan was involved in a some- 
what similar controversy, the party challenged being Senator 
Stephen A. Douglas, and his challenger General J. H. Lane, 
well known in Kansas for fighting propensities. The dif- 
ficulty originated over a forged memorial, which Mr. Doug- 
las, as chairman of the committee on Territories, denounced 
in severe terms. The newspapers took it up eagerly, and 
between them and hot-headed friends, General Lane, who 
was personally connected with the presentation of the me- 
morial, was urged to hostile action. Under date of April, 
1856, he addressed a letter to Douglas, asking for " such an 
explanation of your language as will remove all imputation 
upon the integrity of my action or motives in connection with 
that memorial." Again had a grievous mistake been made 
in judging a man. Douglas replied at once, and in scathing 
terms reiterating all the facts in the case, concluding : 
** My reply is, that there are no facts within my knowledge 
which can remove all imputation upon the integrity of your 
action or motives in connection with that memorial." There 
was nothing more said about a duel, " although General 
Lane, sixty days later, published an abusive card in the 
Washington papers, which injured its author more than it 
did Senator Douglas." 

Thus in ridicule and disgrace, scourged alike by the law 
and by public sentiment, the code duello passed for ever 
from the State. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

SOME PECULIAR COLONIES 

EVEN in the earliest days of American settlement col- 
onies became a special feature of Illinois' growing 
population. The very first American settlement, that about 
Bellefontaine and New Design, was made by a party of 
neighbors migrating to the new land in a compact body, 
while many others, similarly bound together by ties of 
friendship or religious faith, continued to follow. In the 
more northern counties, when New England began adding 
her quota to the incoming throng, this community interest 
became especially noticeable. In Henry County alone, 
Andover, Wethersfield, Geneseo, Morristown, La Grange, 
and Bishop Hill all originated in well-organized colony 
movements, the emigrants coming generally in a body, and 
settling upon land previously selected for occupancy by an 
agent or committee. In many cases religious belief was the 
principle binding the colony members together, entire 
churches migrating to this new region, bringing their pastors 
with them, as was the case with the earlier settlers of Princeton. 
Nor were foreign colonists altogether lacking from the 
earliest days. As far back as 1808, Samuel O'Melvany, an 
Irishman who soon became well known and popular the 
full length of the frontier, led a colony of Irish families down 
the Ohio River until they made permanent settlement near 
the present town of Elizabeth, in the county of Hardin. Here 
for many years they prospered as an organized colony, mu- 
tually helpful to each other, and through the compactness 
of their settlement remained largely immune from Indian 
attack, although surrounded by the fierce Shawnees. 

345 



346 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Soon after the War of 1812, Morris Birbeck, an English- 
man greatly interested in democratic institutions, paid an 
extended visit to Illinois, seeking a spot for the location of a 
selected colony of his own countrymen. While travelling 
through this section he contributed freely to English news- 
papers, and being a man of keen observation and scholarly 
attainments, these letters were widely read and commented 
upon abroad. Not long after, he and George Flower, both 
being men of independent wealth, the latter imbued deeply 
with the community idea then prevalent among religious en- 
thusiasts in the old country, who dreamed of an ideal State 
in the wilderness, brought out a large colony from England. 
Several hundred families, representing almost every in- 
dustrial pursuit, were included in this body, which located 
within the present limits of Edwards County. Mr. Flower, 
with his more direct followers, established the town of Albion, 
now the county seat, where the community idea was put into 
successful operation, and continued to flourish for some 
years. About a mile west of this site, Mr. Birbeck established 
another town, called Wannock, which, however, proved a 
failure. Considerable rivalry existed between the two places 
for several years, and as, besides the leaders, there was much 
wealth and refinement in both colonies, no little attention 
was paid to social matters. Mr. Flower, unfortunately 
for the future development of his colony along the lines 
originally projected, lost his fortune by the breaking of the 
United States Bank, and soon after removed to Mt. Vernon, 
Indiana. Several of his descendants yet continue to reside 
in Edwards County. Mr. Birbeck became Secretary of 
State under Governor Coles, and was very prominent in the 
fight against slavery. He was drowned in a bayou of the 
Wabash, called Fox River, which was swollen by rain. Ac- 
companied only by his son, while on his way home from 
New Harmony, Indiana (then in charge of the famous 
Robert Owen communists), where they had been visiting, 



SOME PECULUR COLONIES 347 

he attempted to cross the stream, but the rapid current swept 
the horses aside into deep water, and both horses and Mr. 
Birbeck perished. His son barely escaped the same fate. 
It may be possible that in Albion to-day a few of the 
original settlers yet reside ; certain it is their descendants 
are quite numerous throughout Edwards County. 

Some time about 18 15, two German families, named 
Markee and Germain, first settled in a deep gorge of the 
Mississippi bluff, in St. Clair County, which soon became 
known throughout the surrounding region as Dutch Hollow. 
These two families became a nucleus for the present large 
German population of St. Clair and the counties adjoining. 
Another English colony, but Roman Catholic, and bringing 
their own priest with them, settled as early as 1817 in Prairie 
du Long Creek, Monroe County. This company was com- 
posed of from fifteen to twenty families, originally from 
Lancaster, the names of the founders being Thomas Win- 
stantly, Bamber, Threlfall, and Newsham. They prospered, 
and became a thrifty settlement. A third English colony 
settled in Green County in 1820, and were successful. In 
1819, Ferdinand Ernst, who was a gentleman of wealth and 
literary taste, having his home in the kingdom of Hanover, 
brought to Vandalia, then just selected as the State capital, 
a thrifty German colony of about thirty families. Later, 
in 1822, Bernard Steiner settled a small Swiss community, 
consisting originally of ten families, in the southeastern part 
of St. Clair County. Their location was on a beautiful and 
commanding eminence soon known as Dutch Hill. Others 
of their race followed, and it became a large and influential 
settlement. 

But the two colony schemes of most interest, whether 
from a religious or a communistic point of view, working 
out their destinies in Illinois, were those at Bishop Hill, in 
Henry County, and the settlement of the Icarians at Nauvoo. 
The founder of the former colony was Eric Jansen, a man 



348 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

of about forty years of age, a native of Sweden. Although 
of strong religious faith, he abjured the Lutheran Church, 
which exercised theological domination in his native 
land, and by precept and preaching gathered about him 
some eleven hundred adherents to his independent belief. 
Controversy and persecution followed, during which Jansen 
and many of his followers suffered imprisonment and other 
hardships. For more than three years this unequal struggle 
for liberty of conscience continued, but the opposition was 
too strong to be overcome, and a decision was finally reached 
to emigrate in a body to America. One of the principal 
tenets of their religion was that all things should be in com- 
mon, so that no poor should go unprovided for, and none 
suffer from lack of means. Among the earliest converts to 
this belief w^ere Messrs. Hedine and Olsen, both men of 
wealth, who gave freely to aid the needy. 

The ordinary authorities refusing passports, the King 
was appealed to in person, and he permitted them to depart 
from the country. Under this authority, eleven hundred 
people set sail from Sweden in the Summer of 1846, reached 
New York in October of the same year, and a month later 
some seven hundred of them arrived at Bishop Hill, in this 
State, for settlement. About four hundred of the original 
colonists shifted to other locations on the route, many of 
these latter proving impostors, who had joined the colony 
for no higher purpose than to get their passages paid to 
America. 

Mr. Jansen, who had come in advance of these others, 
had been compelled to escape from Sweden into Norway, 
leaving that country under an assumed name. At New York 
he met his people, and guided them to the location already 
selected for settlement. Olof Olsen, a brother of the man 
of wealth already mentioned, had been the avant-courrier 
of these colonists, selecting the spot for their occupancy. 
While here on his first visit of exploration, he purchased a 



WME PECVLIAR COLONIES 349 

farm at the east end of Red Oak Grove, this becoming the 
nucleus for those to follow. The colonists first settled along 
the south bank of South Edward Creek, a small, sluggish 
stream. The site was a beautiful one, sparsely covered with 
a small growth of oaks. Possessing neither material for 
building, nor means to purchase any, they were content to 
erect tents and coverings of brush for immediate protection. 
These soon proving inadequate, caves were dug in the hill- 
side, wherein many of the colonists, with their families, 
managed to pass their first Winter in America. These 
caves were where the village park is now laid out. The 
hardships following such conditions of life proved greater 
than many of the members had resolution to endure. Some 
stole away singly, others in little squads, leaving the stronger 
and more resolute to fight it out to the end. 

These were, indeed, in most lamentable stress. The 
journey had nearly exhausted the funds of the society, and 
they possessed no credit. Yet one thing was certain, by 
some means provisions for a year must be secured, or the 
entire company was doomed. Not a man among them, 
except a sailor who had picked up a few words, could speak 
any English, but John Olsen, who seemingly was gifted with 
the faculty of sign language, undertook to provide the neces- 
sary food, and succeeded tolerably well while money lasted. 
After that the struggle was truly desperate, yet was bravely 
lived through until Spring brought sufficient amounts from 
Europe to relieve their more pressing needs. 

Little by little the mud caves gave way to houses labo- 
riously constructed of unbaked brick, with an occasional 
small frame structure. These were all very inferior ; but in 
1849 a four-story brick house was erected, about one hun- 
dred feet in length and forty-five in width. The basement 
of this building was intended for a general dining-room, 
while the upper portion was arranged into apartments 
for families. In 1851 this structure was extended another 



350 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

hundred feet, and is still occupied by newcomers in 
the community who are unable to provide their separate 
homes. A large frame building, the upper part being de- 
signed for a church, while the basement was partitioned off 
for families, was erected as early as 1849, ^^^ religious en- 
thusiasm of the colonists leading them to prepare a house 
of worship even before securing their own personal comfort. 
This building still stands, and is used for the purposes for 
which it was originally erected. 

An English school was established here in January, 
1847, ^ Presbyterian minister. Rev. Mr. Talbot, teaching a 
class of thirty-five in a mud cave. Many lines of industry 
were followed by the colonists, much attention being given 
to orchards and the cultivation of small fruits, but with in- 
different success. A brewery for the manufacture of small 
beer, a favorite beverage of the Swedes, was early started, 
and by 1851 a commodious brick building for this purpose 
was erected. A grist-mill on a small scale was soon in op- 
eration on Edwards Creek, and two sawmills soon followed 
upon the banks of the same stream. A steam grist-mill 
was commenced as early as 1849. Flax was the staple crop 
for several years, which was principally woven into linen of 
various grades, the coarsest being used for carpeting. Up 
to 1857, after which little was manufactured for sale, the 
aggregate amount of linen sold was 130,309 yards ; of car- 
peting, 22,569 yards. Some of this linen was quite fine, 
but the coarser kinds proved to be most in demand ; large 
quantities were peddled from house to house through the 
surrounding districts. The necessary spinning and weav- 
ing were performed almost entirely by the women, children 
doing the spooning. In early years, looms being scarce, 
the work was kept running night and day. 

The correct conduct of these people, the purity of their 
lives, and their industry, soon won the respect of their im- 
mediate neighbors, yet they suffered greatly from the strange 



SOME PECULIAR COLONIES 351 

climate and the exposure of those earHer years. Great 
numbers sickened and died ; mortality among the children 
was fearful. During the cholera scourge of 1849-52, men 
would go to their work in the morning in good health, and 
lie dead before sundown. This cause, coupled with de- 
sertion, at one time reduced the colony to four hundred and 
fourteen souls, but this remnant hung on with grim courage. 
In their pathetic struggle against want and death, in their 
frugality and industry, in their unselfish efforts to serve 
each other, in the vitality of their faith, during these years 
of poverty and sickness and death, they exhibited a fortitude 
almost unequalled in the history of Illinois settlement. 

At this time, and up to the year i860, everything the 
colony possessed was held in common. Families lived 
apart, generally in substantial brick buildings, subdivided 
so as to give separate accommodation to from eight to twenty 
families each; many of these buildings are yet standing and 
occupied. But all worked together, and at meal-time par- 
took of the same food in the huge dining-rooms. Every 
member was required to perform a certain amount of labor, 
and, after receiving sufficient clothing and food from the 
products, all that remained was used for the purchase of 
more land, or the erection of additional buildings. Drones, 
however, early began to appear in this line of industry, and 
after only fourteen years of effort, it became clear that the 
beautiful theories of Mr. Jansen must fail in practical life, 
and the colony became divided. 

Two parties formed, one known as the Johnson (Jansen) 
party, the other rallying under the leadership of Olsen. The 
former was the more numerous, and in the division of prop- 
erty which followed obtained about two-thirds of the land 
and personalty. No serious difficulties arose over this 
division, and the individual affairs of the colony continued 
undisturbed, but a year later the Johnson party made an- 
other step toward the final disruption of the commune by 



35^ 



HISTORIC ILLINOIS 



making an individual distribution of all their farm and 
town possessions. This was accomplished as follows. To 
every person, male or female, who had then attained the 
age of thirty-five years, a full share of all lands, timber 
and town lots, and personal property was given. A full 
share consisted of twenty-two acres of land, one timber lot, 
— nearly two acres, — one town lot, and an equal part in 
all barns, horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, farming implements, 
and household utensils. All under that age received a share 
corresponding in amount and value to the age of the indi- 
vidual, no discrimination being shown between the sexes. 
The smallest share was about eight acres, the other prop- 
erty in proportion. Thus a man over thirty-five, having a 
wife of that age, and several children, would receive many 
acres of land, and considerable property to manage. He 
held that of the wife and children simply in trust, the deeds 
to all the property being made in the name of the family 
head. This division is still maintained, and its wisdom was 
long ago demonstrated by results. The Olsen party mean- 
time continued to cling to the old colony system, but, in 
little less than a year, they also were convinced of its weak- 
ness, and divided their property on the same basis with the 
others. Their shares, however, were not quite so large. 

One tragedy came into this peaceful colony life to mar 
the fraternity marking its years of existence, and that cost 
the life of its founder, Eric Jansen. In the Fall of 1848, an 
adventurer named Root, the son of a wealthy family of 
Stockholm, made his appearance at Bishop Hill. Express- 
ing a desire to become one of the fraternity, he was admitted 
without opposition. Soon afterwards he contracted mar- 
riage with a cousin of Eric Jansen, which was agreed to 
under a special restriction, that if Root ever decided to de- 
sert the colony, he should go alone, leaving his wife to the 
full enjoyment of her colony rights. Root proved an ut- 
terly worthless fellow, constitutionally opposed to labor of 




RUINS OF ICARIAN BREWERY AT NAUVOO 




COLONY HOUSE AT BISHOP HILL 



SOME PECULIAR COLONIES 353 

any kind, and desiring nothing but to roam the woods with 
his gun. His treatment of his wife was tyrannical, and 
when he finally decided to leave, she was not regretful of 
the separation. Several months later, however, and soon 
after his wife had given birth to a son. Root reappeared, 
and insisted upon her leaving the colony with him. This 
the woman did not desire to do, and was sustained in her 
decision by Jansen, whom the infuriated husband threat- 
ened with a drawn bowie-knife. 

Unable to persuade. Root determined to resort to force. 
Obtaining the services of a young man named Stanley, who 
belonged at Cambridge, he stationed him with a horse and 
buggy near town, and, while the community were at dinner, 
succeeded in forcing the woman to accompany him, and 
drove rapidly away. Pursuit was prompt, and Root and 
Stanley were overtaken within two miles; but being heavily 
armed, they stood off the brethren for some time, until 
finally Stanley surrendered, and Root yielded up his wife 
to her friends. Legal proceedings followed, during which 
Mrs. Root was conducted to Cambridge under the custody 
of the sheriff. Here Root stole her the second time, driving 
across country to Rock Island, and taking her to Chicago, 
where she was later recovered by the colonists and safely 
returned to Bishop Hill. At the May term of court in 1850, 
Root and Jansen met at the court-house in Cambridge, 
and just as the court adjourned for dinner, the former shot 
the latter, who expired in a few hours. Root was tried for 
murder, received a penitentiary sentence, and died shortly 
after its expiration. The old buildings at Bishop Hill re- 
main, and many of the old customs, to tell the story of a 
beautiful dream of fraternity which was not practical enough 
to survive the continued strain of experiment. 

Soon after the last remnant of Mormon population dis- 
appeared from Nauvoo on their long journey to Salt Lake, 
there appeared on that historic spot the advance agents of a 



354 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

new colony, seeking opportunity to exploit other peculiar 
theories of social life in this far western country. Nauvoo, 
in its pathetic desolation, with empty buildings awaiting oc- 
cupancy, and property held cheaply, was apparently an 
ideal site for such an experiment, and the agents returned 
hastily down the river to the waiting colonists at New Or- 
leans, with a favorable report, and an option on the land. 
These new arrivals were the Icarians, a considerable body 
of communists, organized in France, under the leadership 
of Etienne Cabet, the brilliant son of a cooper of Dijon, 
then fifty-one years of age. The foundations of his dream 
of absolute equality, as typified in a democratic republic to 
be called Icaria, were laid as early as 1830, and by 1847 
four hundred thousand names were reported as signed to 
the Social Compact. A year later, having obtained a large 
tract of land in Texas, an avant-garde of sixty-nine chosen 
men sailed from France to take formal possession. Others 
followed, but, from various causes, more particularly the 
nature of the country and the prevalence of malarial fever, 
this first colonization was an utter failure, so that when, in 
1849, Cabet reached New Orleans and took personal com- 
mand of the entire force, — then numbering five hundred, 
including many women and children, — agents w^ere de- 
spatched up the Mississippi seeking a more suitable location 
for permanent settlement. 

In March, 1849, ^^^ remnant of the colony, still firm in 
the belief in their dream, began their journey up the river. 
It proved a fearful one. Cholera broke out and many 
died. On reaching Warsaw, twenty miles below Nauvoo, 
ice blocked further passage northward by steamer, and they 
were compelled to tramp the remainder of the way knee- 
deep in snow and slush, carrying children and sick as best 
they could. At Nauvoo they found some comfort, in the 
houses still standing as the banished Mormons had left them, 
yet much suffering remained. The climate was severe, 



SOME PECULIAR COLONIES 355 

water unwholesome, food costly, indeed nearly impossible 
to obtain at any price. For months they subsisted almost 
entirely upon beans. But in the midst of all this hardship 
the spirit of the Icarians remained unbroken. Slowly they 
built their little commonwealth, a mere child's toy com- 
pared to the stately city of their leader's enthusiastic plan, 
yet ruled by the same laws, controlled by the same ideals, 
which had made them exiles. Six directors, elected annually, 
controlled the administration ; the laws were made by a 
general assembly including all men over twenty. Cabet 
was elected president year after year, yet exercised little 
authority, as the title was merely one of honor. 

The colony was purely communistic, the members putting 
their every possession, even to loved books and heirlooms, 
into the common fund. Furniture, tools, and cooking 
utensils were equally divided ; tasks and hours of labor 
were so arranged as to be evenly proportioned. Homes 
were indeed separate, each family occupying its own house, 
but the colony school reared the children in communion, 
and removed them as far as practicable from all home- 
making influences. All ate at one common table, and in 
every way possible individualism was crowded into the back- 
ground, and treated as unworthy. 

And for a while this strange community on the Nauvoo 
Bluff^s flourished and increased. It became fairly prosper- 
ous. By 1855 ^^^y ^^^> yvith vast industry and self-denial, 
erected mills and workshops ; their farms were well tilled ; 
their school ranked among the very best in the infant State. 
A well-selected library of choicest literature had been es- 
tablished, containing over six thousand volumes, while an 
orchestra, well organized and trained, was the marvel of 
the neighbors. The colony even published for some time 
a weekly magazine, which won a wide circulation both in 
this country and in Europe, being printed in three dif- 
ferent languages. New members were constantly arriving, 



356 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

and the later years saw a higher grade of newcomers — men 
and women of gentle birth and refined culture. Katharine 
Holland Brown — to whom acknowledgment is made for 
the facts of this connected story — in her sympathetic article 
in " Harper's Magazine," speaks of several accomplished 
musicians ; two painters of wide reputation; a famous civil 
engineer ; a physician who had stood at the head of his 
profession in Vienna ; Dadant, the authority on bee-culture ; 
Piquenard, afterward architect of the capitol buildings of 
both Iowa and Illinois ; Vallet, the sociologist ; and Von 
Gauvain, nobleman, officer, and teacher. Surely here was 
the foundation for a noble state, and Icaria's prospects for 
the future were bright with promise. 

Yet with this very moment of highest possibilities the 
fatal step was taken which led direct to ruin, and Cabet, 
the founder, that remarkable man whose mind had dreamt 
the dream of this realization, was himself the cause of fail- 
ure, even as he had been the inspiration for success. Late 
in 1855 he seemingly became tired of being president only 
in name, and made an ineffectual effort to have the con- 
stitution of the colony so revised as to give him almost dic- 
tatorial powers. This was so utterly opposed not only to 
the original purpose of the colony but to Cabet's previously 
avowed principles, that for a brief while the astonished com- 
mune remained bewildered. Then the members rose to 
the issue, every man taking either one side or the other in 
the ensuing contest, until the entire town was rent into two 
bitterly hostile camps, but the majority opposing the new 
project. 

The election which soon followed deposed Cabet entirely, 
but, trusting to the veneration in which he had long been 
held by his followers, he appealed personally to the assem- 
bled voters, in a dramatic scene, withdrew his demands for 
new powers, and the people again conferred upon him the 
title of president. A brief peace followed, but in August 



SOME PECULIAR COLONIES 357 

the smouldering flames burst forth anew, when Cabet, again 
becoming impatient for power, commanded his old officials 
to refuse to vacate their positions to those who had been 
newly elected. The new directors were, however, put in by 
force, the majority of the communists rallying about them, 
and immediately all of Cabet's loyal followers in the colony 
dropped their tools, and refused to work any longer. It 
was a strike almost modern in the form as well as the way 
in which it was carried on. Both parties were extremely 
foolish in their anger and vindictiveness. They would not 
speak on the street, and turned their backs in passing. 
Those of the opposing party so arranged their tables in the 
long dining-hall as not to face Cabet while eating, while even 
the children took up the quarrel in the commune school. 

Neither side would yield an inch to the other, while, 
after several weeks of this enforced idleness, the majority 
party seized the storehouses, declaring that those who would 
not work should not eat. For a while the Cabetists held 
firm, but the suffering of the women and children finally 
drove them to reluctant submission. This was made as 
humiliating as possible, Cabet and his followers being con- 
temptuously lined up before the steps of the phalanstery 
to receive their dole in silence. As they turned away, one 
of the number, angered by a sneer, flung his bread upon the 
ground, and trampled it into the dirt. The others followed 
his actions to a man, cursing the majority as they did so. 
No blood was shed, but after this occurrence any reconcilia- 
tion between the factions was manifestly impossible. 

The majority met in secret council, burned their copies 
of Cabet's Icaria, which up to this period had been their 
creed; then a legal division of the community property was 
decided upon, and Cabet by vote expelled from the com- 
mune. When he finally left Nauvoo in November, one 
hundred and eighty disciples accompanied him into exile, 
while eight hundred remained behind. A week later he was 



358 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

smitten with apoplexy while in St. Louis, and died suddenly. 
His immediate followers located six miles below that city, 
prospered for a while as a community, but later broke up 
and scattered. The others, the dominant majority, had no 
better fate awaiting them. Little by little they drifted away 
from fateful Nauvoo, which has witnessed so many high 
hopes wither and die, to a tract of land owned by the com- 
mune in Iowa. Here their story was one of splendid effort, 
but utter failure. From the start all was drudgery, their 
lives harsh and dull ; yet they sought earnestly to attain to 
that high ideal of socialism which had originally brought 
them across the seas. By 1875 they reached the height of 
their prosperity, and then a second division occurred, this 
time the younger members pitting themselves against the 
elder. Once more the colony was rent asunder, most of the 
younger people drifting to California, the others still cling- 
ing in pathetic loyalty to their old Icaria. Year by year 
they became fewer, less enthusiastic, seeking no longer to 
win new recruits to their theories of life. They had no cause 
left to champion, and the end was not far off. By 1895 ^^^ 
last vestige of the great Icarian movement had perished. 
As the writer above quoted aptly says, " Perhaps no other 
reform has so stirred a continent at its beginning, only to 
sink without a ripple at its end." 



CHAPTER XXV 

HUMORS OF THE FRONTIER 

FRONTIER humor is quite apt to prove of the bois- 
terous kind, finding its more common expression in 
rude practical joking and horse-play. The virtues of the 
border are Homeric, the sports rough, the play coarse and 
somewhat animal. Refinement seldom dwells between log 
walls, and those who invade new lands, fronting daily peril, 
and breasting the hardships of a wilderness they must con- 
quer, have little time to waste on the small amenities of life. 
They meet things in the rough, and the seriousness of their 
environment inevitably stamps itself on countenance and 
manner. In those rare times when neighbors congregated 
together, border sports were entered upon with zest, wres- 
tling, rifle-shooting, or horse-racing being the chosen order 
of the day, and proud indeed was the sturdy pioneer who 
bore home with him some memento of prowess from such 
hard-fought fields. These were likewise the sports of the 
volunteer soldiery, and every house-raising, or gathering of 
neighbors for any purpose, was certain to witness some test 
of physical strength. 

Yet in numerous ways, along the rather devious course 
of Illinois history, there crops out an innate sense of humor, 
sufficient to awaken smiles even now as we contemplate 
those happenings of the long ago. Historians are not often 
humorists, yet the pages of those who have told in all seri- 
ousness the earlier story of the State have sketched here and 
there scenes, incidents, and characteristics which tend to 
relieve the sombreness of border struggle, reminding us anew 
that the names we read belonged to living men, as human 

359 



360 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

in their time as are we to-day. Politics and political con- 
troversy, always intensely interesting in a new land, furnish 
many glimpses of those strenuous times. Political cam- 
paigns were intensely personal, the questionsof public policy 
involved, if any there were, being relegated to the background, 
while voters selected their choice for office from personal 
like or dislike of the candidate. Whiskey likewise figured 
largely in results, and was extremely conspicuous in each 
campaign. Ford tells us gravely that in the political battle 
of 1830 William Kinney, a Baptist preacher, who was a can- 
didate for Governor, made his campaign with a Bible in 
one pocket and a bottle of liquor in the other. Thus armed, 
he was prepared for any emergency. Treating by can- 
didates for office was in those days an indispensable element 
of success. In some sections the seeking politicians would 
hire all the groceries at the county seats, and, on certain 
days, serve liquor free to all who came. To such places 
the voters would swarm, riding in from their distant clear- 
ings to hear the news, and frequently before night would be 
drunken enough to engage in many a rough-and-tumble 
fight. If candidates were present, as was usually the case, 
speeches were certain to be made, the ambitious orators 
mounting on convenient wagons, logs, or tree trunks, ad- 
vocating at length, and with much fervid eloquence, their 
claims to office. The ** vital questions of the day " dis- 
cussed at such backwoods meetings were seldom measures, 
but generally men, and the speeches consisted in bitter per- 
sonal arraignment of opponents. The more intemperate 
the language employed, the better pleased were the crowd, 
the greater the influence of the orator. When this was over, 
inflamed by passion and liquor, the gathering would dis- 
perse on their horses, galloping through the town, reeling, 
huzzahing, and yelling for their favorite, or groaning, curs- 
ing, and berating the opposition. 

In early political contests, those who were known as the 



HUMORS OF THE FRONTIER 361 

old pioneers were very much in evidence. Having been 
first upon the ground, they claimed peculiar privileges 
for themselves, which were usually granted. This found 
illustration in other matters as well. Judge Blackwell 
relates a professional call which one of this class once paid 
to him. In the older days, bee-trees were held as common 
property, the finder cutting one down and appropriating the 
honey, irrespective of boundary lines. As settlements grew, 
however, this rather lawless privilege had to be curtailed, 
and consequently this particular pioneer was being pro- 
ceeded against for trespass by a neighbor whose property 
had been thus tampered with. Blackwell told him the law, 
and advised an attempt at compromise, but the indignant 
old fellow stomped out of the office, declaring, *' This country 
is getting too damned civilized for me; I'll make tracks fer 
Oregon, where the old pioneer kin git justice." Unfor- 
tunately, in politics, as in much else, ignorance and prejudice 
largely ruled this class, and they bitterly opposed every 
public policy which tended toward a betterment of con- 
ditions ; nor were their immediate descendants much im- 
provement over the original stock. As a rule, they were 
prone to brawling, loud-mouthed, and quarrelsome. They 
arrayed themselves conspicuously in buckskin breeches, 
leather moccasins, raccoon caps, and red hunting-shirts 
belted at the waist, in which they carried a huge knife, 
which gave them the popular name of " butcher boys." 
Profane and rough when in liquor, they would swagger 
through a crowd, loudly proclaiming themselves *' half- 
horse, half-alligator," and seeking to provoke a quarrel. 

Such citizens were not likely to vote into office a very 
high grade of manhood, and as a result, many of the earlier 
legislators were little worthy of honor. The interests of the 
people received slight consideration, while all manner of com- 
binations were formed for the parcelling out of fat jobs for 
personal benefit. Governor Ford describes Samuel Crozier, 



362 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Senator from Randolph, as " a remarkable example of 
pure, kind, and simple-hearted honesty"; then he tells us 
that after serving two sessions, and after he had been bought 
and sold a hundred times without even knowing it, the old 
Senator said that he '* really did believe that some intrigue 
had been going on." From top to bottom, corruption 
was the rule. And in the elections the " butcher boys " 
held for a long while the balance of power throughout the 
settlements. When the knife became finally tabooed as an 
article of dress, the same class of voters held on in other 
forms. They became known as '* the barefooted boys," 
the " flat-footed boys," or the " huge-pawed boys," names 
with which they were greatly tickled ; and their influence 
continued so long as physical force dominated the polls. 

In the courts, the judges, even those of the Supreme 
bench, were not appointed because of any superior legal 
acumen. Indeed, few possessed even a rudimentary knowl- 
edge of the law, and some were not, like Caesar's wife, 
above suspicion. For instance, Foster, who was named 
as one of the Supreme judges, resigned within a year. He 
was, in the language of Ford, — 

" Almost a total stranger in the country. He was a great 
rascal, but no one knew it then, he having been a citizen of the 
State only for about three weeks before he was elected. He was no 
lawyer, never having either studied or practised law ; but a man of 
winning, polished manners, and withal a gentlemanly swindler from 
some part of Virginia. He was believed to be a clever fellow in 
the American sense of that phrase, and a good-hearted soul. He 
was assigned to hold courts on the circuit of the Wabash ; but, 
being fearful of exposing his utter incompetency, he never went 
near any of them. In the course of one year he resigned his high 
office, but took care to pocket his salary, and then removed out of 
the State." 

Governor Reynolds tells, with considerable humor, how 
he chanced to be selected as a member of that same exalted 



HUMORS OF THE FRONTIER 363 

tribunal. At the time he resided at Cahokia, and had no 
intention of visiting the session of the legislature, which 
was disposing of so many fat offices while first organizing 
the State government. He wanted nothing, and had no 
axe to grind for anyone else. But, being urged by friends, 
he went along with them on a visit to Kaskaskia. Upon 
arrival they found much excitement and commotion 
at the capital, incident to the selection of the new State 
officials. A few days later, unsolicited, he was being 
strongly urged to become a candidate for Supreme Judge. 
The request was a surprise, but at last consenting, he was 
immediately chosen. His sole experience in law, as he put it, 
was four years' practice of "commerce in land." "I spec- 
ulated, sold land, and bought two stores of dry-goods, 
amounting to $10,000." His first term of court was to him 
a "strange and novel business." This chanced to be held 
at Covington, Washington County, in the midst of many 
old acquaintances, some of whom had been comrades in 
the Rangers. These lads failed utterly to appreciate his 
present dignity. The sheriff, unmindful of the exaltation 
of his old companion in arms, made proclamation of the 
fact of his presence without rising from the rude bench 
which he occupied astride, saying in familiar tones, '* Boys, 
the Court is now open; John is on the bench." 

Even the religious gatherings of the frontier were often 
tinged with humor and afflicted by the practical joke. 
Camp-meetings were not infrequently resorted to by the 
younger people as a species of enjoyable picnic. An early 
historian tells of a happening, in which he may have been 
concerned, ludicrous enough to deserve mention. A party 
of fervent Methodists, under the preaching of their class 
leaders, were in the midst of a protracted meeting in one 
of the small cabins of the settlement. The subject under 
consideration was the presence of Satan in their midst. It 
was night, and with only a single candle to light them, they 



364 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

were grouped in the one room, the only window being open. 
Through this aperture some boys without suddenly flung a 
black calf, which, bleating furiously, overturned the candle, 
and scattered the assembled worshippers. These fled, firmly 
believing they had been visited in person by His Satanic 
Ma jesty. 

In those days, little of ceremony was ever considered 
necessary. The courts were held in log houses, or in the 
bar-rooms of taverns, fitted up temporaril)^ for the purpose. 
The decision of all questions, law as well as fact, was com- 
monly left with the juries, and the law was oftentimes very 
rudely administered. Brown, to illustrate the size of St. 
Clair County, quotes a case occurring before a court at 
Cahokia to recover the value of a cow. Judgment was ren- 
dered for sixteen dollars, and the case was appealed. The 
adverse party, with his witnesses, resided at Prairie du Chien, 
in what is now Wisconsin, four hundred miles away. The 
sheriflF, who chanced to be also an Indian trader, having 
received a summons for the party and subpoenas for the 
witnesses, fitted out a boat with a suitable stock of goods for 
the Indian trade, and started up the river. • Having served 
his papers on the greater part of the inhabitants of Prairie 
du Chien, he made his return, charging mileage and service 
for each, as he had a legal right to do; his costs, and the 
costs of the suit, are said to have exceeded nine hundred 
dollars. Whether ever collected or not, history does not 
record, but it is safe to say the sheriff lost no money. Gover- 
nor Reynolds relates a case occurring in the court of Prairie 
du Rocher, conducted against a negro who was charged 
with the " murder " of a hog. The case was really one of 
malicious mischief, for wantonly destroying a useful animal, 
but in the absence of a prosecuting attorney, the grand jury, 
groping about blindly in the law books furnished them, 
met with the precedent of an indictment for murder, and 
promptly applied it to the case in hand. It may be possible 



HUMORS OF THE FRONTIER 365 

that righteous judgment was accorded the unfortunate 
colored brother under these circumstances, but he ran a risk 
not pleasant to contemplate. 

Ford, in referring to the disinclination of judges un- 
learned in the law to instruct juries in their courts, mentions 
one who would always rub his head and the side of his face 
with his hand, as if perplexed, and say, " Why, gentlemen, 
the jury understand the case ; they need no instructions ; 
no doubt they will do justice between the parties." This 
same judge presided at a time when a fellow named Green 
was convicted of murder, and it became his unpleasant duty 
to pronounce sentence of death on the prisoner. He called 
the culprit before him, and said: " Mr. Green, the jury in 
their verdict say you are guilty of murder, and the law says 
you are to be hung. Now, I want you, and all your friends 
down on Indian Creek, to know that it is not I who con- 
demns you, but it is the jury and the law. Mr. Green, the 
law allows you time for preparation, and so the Court wants 
to know what time you would like to be hung." To this 
kind request the prisoner replied, *' May it please the Court, 
I am ready at any time ; those who kill the body have no 
power to kill the soul; my preparation is made, and I am 
ready to suffer at any time the Court may appoint." The 
judge then said, *' Mr. Green, you must know that it is a 
very serious matter to be hung ; it can't happen to a man 
more than once in his life, and you had better take all the 
time you can get ; the Court will give you until this day 
four weeks. Mr. Clerk, look at the almanac, and see 
whether this day four weeks comes on Sunday." The 
clerk looked as directed, and reported that that day four 
weeks came on Thursday. The judge then said, " Mr. 
Green, the Court gives you until this day four weeks, at 
which time you are to be hung." 

The case was prosecuted by James Turney, then attorney- 
general of the State, who here interposed, and said: " May 



366 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

it please the Court, on solemn occasions like the present, 
when the life of a human being is to be sentenced away for 
crime, by an earthly tribunal, it is usual and proper for 
courts to pronounce a formal sentence, in which the lead- 
ing features of the crime shall be brought to the recollection 
of the prisoner, a sense of his guilt impressed upon his con- 
science, and in which the prisoner should be duly exhorted 
to repentance, and warned against the judgment in a world 
to come." To this the judge replied: "O Mr. Turney, 
Mr. Green understands the whole matter as well as if I had 
preached to him a month. He knows he 's got to be hung 
this day four weeks. You understand it in that way, Mr. 
Green, don't you ? " " Yes," returned the prisoner; upon 
which the judge ordered him to be remanded to jail, and 
the court was adjourned. 

It is reported, however, that one, at least, of these judges 
of early days was very fond of instructing juries, and very 
prolix and positive in his mode of doing so. Being extremely 
ambitious to exhibit his learning, on one occasion he fairly 
outdid himself, but for some reason the jury failed to agree 
upon a verdict. Called back into the court-room, the judge 
indignantly questioned them as to the cause of their dif- 
ficulty, whereupon the foreman answered with great sim- 
plicity and honesty, " Why, judge, this 'ere is the difficulty. 
The jury want to know whether that *ar what you told us, 
whin we furst went out, was raly the law 'er whether it was 
only jist your notion." The judge, it is said, promptly and 
emphatically informed him that it " raly " was the law, 
and a verdict was found accordingly. 

The militia was the cause of much humor throughout 
the early days of the Illinois country. Yet, as we read 
now of the requirements, it would seem to have been no 
laughing matter. All free white residents of the State, be- 
tween eighteen and forty-five, were held as active members, 
and duly enrolled. They were compelled to provide them- 



HUMORS OF THE FRONTIER 367 

selves with musket and bayonet, canteen, two spare flints, 
cartridge-box to contain not less than twenty-four cartridges, 
with powder and ball suited to the bore of their gun. To 
be an officer was an expensive luxury, but as this was con- 
sidered a stepping-stone to political preferment, the expense 
was probably not often wasted. Companies had to muster 
four times yearly, battalions once each year, and regiments 
as often. Uniformity in dress was not always insisted upon, 
and the ragged lines v/ere often strangely and wonderfully 
attired. But the officers seldom failed to be generously 
arrayed, the contrast between their magnificent display of 
gilt braid and the tatterdemalion outfitting of their men 
being painfully apparent. The military titles of general, 
colonel, and major, which graced so many public men at 
this period and later, were usually of militia origin, and 
possessed little significance. Honors were easy however, 
and strutting general and dazzling colonel were jocularly 
hailed as " Joe " or " Sam," by the good-natured back- 
woodsmen whom they temporarily commanded. The train- 
ing days were looked forward to as a time of frolic and 
relaxation, of gossip and political wire-pulling. Much horse- 
play was indulged in, and generally an abundance of liquor 
was in evidence. Yet these musters were no light aff^airs, 
when one considers the distance many were compelled to 
travel to attend, and the fines imposed upon absentees. For 
failure to be present, fines were assessed by court-martial 
— for privates, fifty cents to one dollar and fifty cents, 
and so on up the line to two hundred dollars for comman- 
ders of divisions. Fathers were held liable for fines imposed 
on minor sons, guardians for their wards, masters for their 
apprentices. Quakers, Dunkards, and other religious per- 
sons conscientiously scrupulous against bearing arms, were 
relieved by paying three dollars each. 

In the early days the need of militia organization was 
so apparent, and the muster had so many features of 



368 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

enjoyment and sport connected with it, as to be almost popu- 
lar, but in later years it became abhorred. Shafts of wit and 
ridicule finally drove the old system from the State; some 
of the means used to attain this end may be gleaned from 
a speech made by Abraham Lincoln, in review of those 
times. He said : 

" A number of years ago the militia laws of this State required 
that the militia should train at stated intervals. These trainings 
became a great bore to the people, and every person nearly was for 
putting them down ; but the law required them to train, and they 
could not get it repealed. So they tried another way, and that was 
to burlesque them. And hence they elected old Tim Langwell, 
the greatest drunkard and blackguard, for Colonel, over the best 
men in the country. But this did not succeed altogether. So they 
raised a company, and elected Gordon Abrams as Commander. 
He was dressed in peculiar style, one part of his pants was of one 
color and material, and the other different. He wore a pasteboard 
cap about six feet long, resembling an inverted ox-yoke. The 
shanks of his spurs were about eight inches long, with rowels about 
the circumference of common saucers. He carried a sword made 
of pine wood nine feet long. They also had rules and regulations, 
one of which was, * That no officer should wear more than twenty 
pounds of codfish for epaulets, nor more than thirty pounds of 
Bologna sausage for a sash ' ; and on the banner were borne aloft 
these words : * We Ml fight till we run, and run till we die.' This 
succeeded to a demonstration. They were the last company that 
trained in Springfield." 

Along about 1836 Western humor turned to money- 
making, and as subsequently explained, the joke was plainly 
on the East. It culminated in the great town-lot craze, 
which spread like wildfire the full length and breadth of 
Illinois. Chicago started the boom, and so profited by 
the early experiment that in a year or two it changed from 
a village of a few houses to an ambitious city of several 
thousand inhabitants. The story of the sudden fortunes 
made there during this rise in land values excited at first 



HUMORS OF THE FRONTIER 369 

wonder and amazement ; then it aroused a gambling spirit 
of adventure. Town after town took up the scheme eagerly, 
each advertising its rare attractions throughout the East, 
and disposing of town lots at fabulous prices. Chicago be- 
came a great market for the sale of these lots, the plats of 
towns projected for hundreds of miles around being taken 
there and sold at auction. The Eastern people caught the 
mania, and Illinois supplied the goods. Town lots became 
a staple, and almost the only articles of export. Vessels 
came to Chicago loaded with money and eager investors, 
and returned East crowded with town lots. New towns were 
laid out in every direction to meet the insatiate demand ; 
towns in impassable marshes, and towns in the heart of 
solemn woods. Stakes of surveyors whitened the unbroken 
plains where wolves howled and bears roamed undisturbed, 
and the bounds therein fixed were industriously hawked by 
golden-tongued salesmen in New York and Boston. We 
have now before us a gorgeous picture of a young city, with 
buildings fair to look upon, nestled by the side of a broad 
stream alive with laden steamboats, leading up from the 
crowded wharf bustling with commercial activity. One 
could hardly look at it without an overmastering desire to 
invest. It comes as a shock to discover that this marvel- 
lous Western scene of bustling business activity is named 
Wethersfield, Henry County, Illinois. To suddenly awak- 
ened memory the great business blocks fade away into a 
single one-story country store, the palatial residences into 
a dozen log cabins, the magnificent river into a babbling 
brook to be taken at a stride, the swarms of busy people 
into a single pioneer wearily following his plough through the 
black furrow. For such was the real Wethersfield, widely 
separated from this iridescent dream engendered to deprive 
the East of hard-earned dollars. 

Yet in this matter Wethersfield was no worse than all her 
neighbors, this ancient picture but typical of what was 



370 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

happening to every town throughout the Illinois country in 
those " boom " days, and to many a bit of dull prairie yet 
vacant and desolate. But it brought money into the country, 
and very soon Eastern speculators were fairly loaded down 
with vast tracts of unproductive real estate. And then 
Illinois humor again asserted itself to make these non- 
resident owners aid still further in the development of the 
State. An increase of taxes was the weapon used, the land 
thus being burdened so as to awaken in the capitalist a 
fervent desire to sell cheap. The war raged fiercely for 
several years between the actual settler and the non-resident, 
until finally matters adjusted themselves. Timber was then 
considered free plunder to be cut and used by any comer, 
and non-resident owners brought suits for damages in vain 
— no Illinois jury would convict. Finally, a unique remedy 
was conceived, and ministers of the gospel were employed 
to go out and preach to the unregenerated people against 
the special sin of stealing timber. Each preacher had a 
circuit to preach in, and was paid by the sermon. It has 
never been recorded whether or not this experiment proved 
a success. 

Money, or rather the lack of it, is ever a source of trouble 
in a new country. Illinois suffered for years, coming grad- 
ually up from a currency of fox-skins to the soundness of 
gold and silver. Along the way many an expensive experi- 
ment was tried, and many a financial mistake recorded. 
Banks were chartered, and failed; substitutes for money 
were devised and circulated, only to leave the unfortunate 
possessors worse off than before; while the harassed Gov- 
ernment floundered along oftentimes on the very verge of 
repudiation. In one such emergency, issues were made bear- 
ing two per cent annual interest, and redeemable by the State 
at the expiration of ten years. This, in fact, constituted 
them bills of credit, and it was confidently believed that they 
would keep at par with gold and silver, and our delegation 



HUMORS OF THE FRONTIER 371 

in Congress as gravely instructed to use their utmost exer- 
tion to have these made receivable at the land-office within 
the State. When this resolution was put to a vote in the 
Senate, the old French lieutenant-governor, Colonel Menard, 
presiding over that body, put it to a vote as follows : 
'* Gentlemen ov de Senate, it is moved and seconded dat de 
notes ov dis bank [the State Bank of Illinois] be made land- 
office money. All in favor ov dat motion say ' aye ' ; all against 
it say 'no.' It is decided in de affirmative. And now, gen- 
tlemen, I bet you one hundred dollars he never be made 
land-office money." 

Outside of political meetings, already mentioned, the 
important events of frontier settlements were weddings and 
house-warmings. Henry Howe has left us a graphic picture 
of such occasions. For a long time after the first settlement 
of this country, the inhabitants in general married young. 
There was no distinction of rank, and very little of fortune. 
On these accounts the first impression of love resulted in 
marriage, as a family establishment cost only a little labor, 
and nothing else. A wedding engaged the attention of a 
whole neighborhood; and the frolic was anticipated by old 
and young with eager expectation. This is not to be won- 
dered at, when it is told that a wedding was almost the only 
gathering which was not accompanied with the labor of 
reaping, log-rolling, building a cabin, or planning some 
scout or campaign. On the morning of the wedding-day, 
the groom and his attendants assembled at the house of his 
father, for the purpose of reaching the mansion of his bride 
by noon, the usual time for celebrating the nuptials, which 
must take place before dinner. 

Says the writer above mentioned : 

" Let the reader imagine an assemblage of people, without a 
store, tailor, or mantua-maker within a hundred miles ; and an 
assemblage of horses, without a blacksmith or saddler within an 
equal distance, — the gentlemen dressed in shoe-packs, moccasins, 



372 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

leather breeches, leggins, linsey hunting-shirts, and all home-made; 
the ladies dressed in linsey petticoats, and linsey or linen bed-gowns, 
coarse shoes, stockings, handkerchiefs, and buckskin gloves, if any. 
If there were any buckles, rings, buttons, or ruffles, they were the 
relics of old times, — family pieces, from parents or grandparents. 
The horses were caparisoned with old saddles, old bridles or halters, 
and pack-saddles with a bag or blanket thrown over them ; a rope 
or string as often constituted the girth, as a piece of leather. 

" The march, in double file, was often interrupted by the 
narrowness and obstructions of our horse-paths, as they were called, 
for we had no roads ; and these difficulties were often increased, 
sometimes by the good, and sometimes by the ill will of neighbors, 
by felling trees, and tying grape-vines across the way. Sometimes 
an ambuscade was formed by the wayside, and unexpected discharge 
of several guns took place, so as to cover the wedding-party with 
smoke. 

" Another ceremony commonly took place before the party 
reached the house of the bride, after the practice of making 
whiskey began, which was at an early period : when the party 
were about a mile from the place of their destination, two young 
men would single out to run for the bottle ; the worse the path, 
the more logs, brush, and deep hollows, the better, as these 
obstacles afforded an opportunity for the greater display of intrepid- 
ity and horsemanship. The English fox-chase, in point of danger 
to the riders and their horses, is nothing to this race for the bottle. 
The start was announced by an Indian yell ; logs, brush, muddy 
hollows, hill and glen, were speedily passed by the rival ponies. 
The bottle was always filled for the occasion, so that there was no 
use for judges, for the first who reached the door was presented 
with the prize, with which he returned in triumph to the company. 
On approaching them, he announced his victory over his rival by a 
shrill whoop. At the head of the troop, he gave the bottle first 
to the groom and his attendants, and then to each pair in succession 
to the rear of the line, giving each a dram, and then putting the 
bottle in the bosom of his hunting-shirt, took his station in the 
company." 



HUMORS OF THE FRONTIER 373 

On returning, the same order of procession was followed. 
The feasting and dancing lasted for days, at the end of which 
the whole company were so exhausted as to be unfit for their 
ordinary duties. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

SOME NOTABLE BORDER CHARACTERS 

ONE tendency of frontier life is to develop into more 
vivid contrast the strong and weak points of character. 
The restraints of civilization do not retard, nor greatly con- 
ceal, the exhibition of peculiarities, and rugged natures stand 
forth unpolished. Sham is despised, frankness admired, and 
no reason exists w^hy anyone should appear other than he 
really is. The Illinois country was rich in this respect, and 
many a true man and noble woman bore portion in those 
rough years of development, stamping their own individ- 
ualities forever on the character of the State, and sending 
the thread of their personal influence down to future gen- 
erations. Only very few of these can find mention here, 
nor can such hasty sketches ever do slightest justice even to 
those few. All to be hoped is, that through such dim pictures 
the reader may discern real men and women, and realize that 
history in its better purpose is but a record of individual 
ideals and labor. These old-time Illinoisans lived and hoped, 
worked, loved, sorrowed, and passed away, separate and 
peculiar entities, even as we are now, and their lives were 
merged into the vaster life of the State we love. 

In the earlier history the memory of three women, who 
were in few ways similar, arises into peculiar prominence, 
each occupying a niche entirely her own, but all alike worthy 
of reverence for true womanliness. These three were Mme. 
Le Comte, Mrs. John Edgar, and Mrs. Robert Morrison, 
residents of Kaskaskia. They left indelible impress on the 
period of their existence, and a brief record of their lives has 
been preserved in Davidson and Stuve's History of the 

374 



SOME NOTABLE BORDER CHARACTERS 375 

State, gathered from the personal recollections of Governor 
Reynolds and others. 

Mme. Le Comte was born of French parents at the old 
trading-station on the St. Joseph River, in Michigan, about 
the year 1734. Her maiden name has not been preserved, 
nor do v^e possess any details relating to her earlier life or 
education. Undoubtedly, the latter was very slight, proba- 
bly no more than the merest rudiments picked up from the 
station priest, although she later moved in the highest society 
of Kaskaskia, and had every appearance of refinement and 
gentility. Her early home was in the midst of the Pottawat- 
tomie Indians, and from that date until the day of her death 
she remained both friend and adviser to the red tribes of 
Illinois. She became proficient in their languages, and 
gained a deep insight into their native character, exercising 
a remarkable influence over them. She was married at 
Mackinaw to a fur trader whose name was either St. Ange 
or Pelate, and moved to Chicago, later going down the Illi- 
nois and Mississippi Rivers to Cahokia. Here, her husband 
dying, she was married to M. Le Comte, a Canadian having 
some property. From this marriage sprang one of the 
largest and most influential French families in the early 
Illinois country. Much later in life, after the death of Le 
Comte, she contracted a third marriage, this time with that 
Thomas Brady known in border history for his unfortunate 
marauding expedition against Fort St. Joseph in 1778. 

Mme. Le Comte, for so she was called throughout the 
Illinois country to the day of her death, was in many re- 
spects a typical French woman of the frontier, but of the 
highest grade. She was possessed of an iron constitution, 
a strong mind, and dauntless courage. In person she was 
remarkably attractive, her manner winning, possessing all 
the geniality of the French nature. She travelled much in 
frontier fashion, and underwent great exposure to inclem- 
ency of weather, yet scarcely knew what sickness meant. 



376 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Accustomed to it from childhood, she lived a hardy and fru- 
gal life. Among the Indians her influence was so remarkable 
as to be almost unique in border history. No official in 
French authority ever wielded such power for good or ill 
over the savages of the Illinois as did this rosy-cheeked, 
black-eyed Frenchwoman. And she used this power to 
good account for the benefit of the settlements. Clearly as 
this was proven previously, it became more and more evident 
after the conquest by Clark. That occurrence led to a 
breach between the Illinois French and their Indian neigh- 
bors, which was never healed — the former sided with the 
Americans, while the latter ranged themselves unreservedly 
upon the British side. The long peace of years was broken, 
and many a meditated attack on Cahokia did Mme. Le 
Comte frustrate by rare sagacity and friendly counsel. It 
is said, that so infatuated with her were the savages, they 
would invariably advise her of their intended attack on the 
village. It was at such times the intrepid heroism of the 
woman became evident. Alone, and in the night, she would 
go forth to meet the frenzied warriors, riding straight across 
country to their hostile camps at the Quintin Mound, or the 
foot of the bluffs, or wherever it might be. At times she re- 
mained with them for days together, pleading for the safety 
of her village, counselling peace, and appeasing the anger 
of the savages. Nor did she cease until her cause was won. 
Many a time did she return home followed by a long train 
of warriors changed from bloodthirsty enemies to quiet 
friends. Mme. Le Comte lived at Cahokia to the extreme 
age of a hundred and four, honored, respected, and loved by 
all who knew her, and to the last a power for good along 
the border. 

The second of this trio of notable frontier women was 
Mrs. John Edgar, of Kaskaskia. Her sphere of influence 
was utterly different from that of Mme. Le Comte, as was 
her nationality, yet in some respects it was wider and more 



SOME NOTABLE BORDER CHARACTERS 377 

lasting. For many years this brilliant, accomplished woman, 
accustomed to all the refinements of polite society, reigned 
as the acknowledged queen of fashion in the remote Illinois 
country, and presided with dignified grace over her husband's 
magnificent mansion at Kaskaskia. This home was for 
nearly half a century the abode of hospitality and resort of 
the Hite. It was within these spacious walls that soldiers 
and governors met in social gayety, and here the Marquis 
de La Fayette was entertained in 1825 with a banquet and 
ball. Nor do social honors alone crown Mrs. Edgar's mem- 
ory; as an American patriot she deserves immortality. By 
birth, education, and environment she was an American, but 
at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War her husband was 
an officer in the British navy. Slowly she won him over to 
the patriot cause, and at the same time originated a wide 
plan for encouraging the desertion of British soldiers. In 
this she was extremely active and successful, furnishing the 
fugitives with arms and uniforms, and guiding them to the 
American camp. Some of these runaways being captured, 
Mrs. Edgar was exposed and her husband implicated, which 
led to his fleeing the service, and coming out openly upon 
the patriot side. He served a while in the American army, 
but, deeming it safer to seek greater seclusion, came finally 
to Kaskaskia. The greater part of his property was con- 
fiscated, but through the exertions of his wife, who remained 
in the East two years longer, about twelve thousand dollars 
was safely secured. In Kaskaskia Edgar prospered, and 
for many years they were the most wealthy family in Illi- 
nois. 

Mrs. Robert Morrison came to Kaskaskia as a young 
lady, unmarried, finding her husband among the young 
merchants of that town. From the first she was a rare 
acquisition to the society life of the place, but especially 
did she uplift the ideals and intellectual refinement of that 
rough colony by her remarkable literary ability. This lady 



378 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

originally accompanied her brother, Colonel Donaldson, to 
St. Louis in 1805, but Kaskaskia soon became her permanent 
home. Well educated, full of the joy of life, and of great 
energy, her mind was gifted with originality and romance. 
Almost immediately she became the centre and inspiration 
for a higher intellectuality than these remote regions had 
previously known. Her charming home was soon a gather- 
ing spot for a constantly growing coterie of brilliant young 
minds, destined to make their marks on the nobler life of the 
new State. Her own intellectual gifts inclined her to cul- 
tivate the ait of poetry, in which she became proficient, 
producing many pieces of high value; her prose contribu- 
tions to Eastern publications were also greatly admired by 
good judges of literature. Her pen, always ready, discussed 
subjects of every conceivable nature, not even avoiding the 
political issues of the day, regarding which she exercised 
no inconsiderable influence. A feat of much ingenuity 
was her work of rendering the Psalms of David into verse. 
In later life this lady united with the Catholic Church, 
and so strong was her example, that many others, unsolic- 
ited, followed her. She became the mother of a large 
family, lived to an advanced age, and died at Belleville, 
in 1843. 

Shadrach Bond, the first delegate to Congress, and the 
first Governor of the new State of Illinois, was also among 
the earlier Americans to settle permanently in this region, 
but must not be confused with his uncle, that Shadrach 
Bond who arrived in 1782. While not a great man in 
intellectual breadth, he was still a typical character, repre- 
senting the highest class of the intelligent pioneers. Bond 
was born in Frederick County, Maryland, in 1773, and was 
raised a farmer on his father's plantation, enjoying few 
opportunities for education, yet early evincing a marked in- 
clination for books. At twenty-one years of age, being one 
of a company of neighbors, he floated down the Ohio, helped 



SOME NOTABLE BORDER CHARACTERS 379 

to scull the heavy keel-boat up the Mississippi, and finally 
settled down to farming in the American Bottom, in Monroe 
County, near Eagle Creek. It was a totally undeveloped 
country, a wilderness on every side, and there necessarily 
followed years of hard struggle against both nature and 
savagery. But Bond stuck, and won his battle, gaining 
constantly a wider and firmer influence over the rough 
bordermen. For many years he was, unquestionably, the 
leading local character in the political life of the new com- 
monwealth, and a conspicuous figure in its social affairs. 

Bond, from Governor Ford's description, was a sub- 
stantial, farmer-like man, possessed of plain, strong common 
sense, and a jovial, hearty manner. He was of a convivial, 
benevolent disposition, and naturally a shrewd judge of men, 
as well as of the trend of events. In person he was erect, 
six feet in height, and after middle life he became portly, 
weighing two hundred pounds. His features were strongly 
masculine, marked with character, and rugged, his eyes 
hazel, his hair jet. He was a great favorite with the ladies 
because of his genial ways and love of social gayeties. 
Among men he was what is now known as a " good mixer," 
his apparent frankness of manner, thorough honesty, and 
unostentatious intercourse with people of every degree ren- 
dering him one of the most widely known and popular 
leaders of the young settlements. After leaving the Gov- 
ernor's office, he was appointed register of the land-office 
at Kaskaskia, where he lived quietly until his death in 1830. 
The county of Bond perpetuates his n;cmory. 

The first two practising lawyers in the Illinois country 
are worthy of mention, not only because of their being 
pioneers in this profession, but also on account of their real 
worth and peculiar characteristics. For several years fol- 
lowing 1790 the bar of Illinois consisted of but a single 
member, but he was a host in himself. This legal phenom- 
enon was John Rice Jones, by nativity a Welshman, born 



380 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

in 1750. When he first came to the Far West is not clear, 
but he was certainly the earliest practitioner in this region, 
even antedating organized courts. He would have proved 
a remarkable man in any country, being an accomplished 
linguist, the possessor of a good classical education, and a 
thorough knowledge of legal theory and practice. His cir- 
cuit in earliest days extended from Kaskaskia to Vincennes, 
including Clarksville (opposite what is now Louisville, Ken- 
tucky). The trip was made on horseback, over dim trails, 
and amid much hardship and exposure, but Jones was never 
idle, and seldom discouraged or disconcerted. As a speaker, 
he was the wonder and pride of the frontier, and in moments 
of excitement or anger his power for invective was scathing. 
His words stung, and his quick, nervous sentences sunk 
deep. His influence over a frontier jury, whose every char- 
acteristic he instinctively understood and played upon at will, 
was said to be irresistible. At Vincennes he was elected a 
member of the Territorial Legislature, and in 1807 rendered 
valuable services in revising the Indiana statute law. 

Unfortunately for his highest reputation, Jones later be- 
came involved in what may justly be termed one of the bor- 
der brawls of the period, which arose between the American 
settlers and their Spanish neighbors across the Mississippi. 
A body of men, organized without authority, but commanded 
by George Rogers Clark, commenced a series of depredations 
on numerous Spanish traders in the Illinois country, who 
were plundered of goods and merchandise, in retaliation for 
similar alleged offences by Spaniards of Natchez. In these 
outrages Jones took a prominent part, acting as commissary 
of the American forces, and selling all stolen goods that were 
found unsuitable to the uses of those men engaged. These 
acts came very near embroiling us in a serious struggle with 
Spain. Later, Jones removed to Missouri, became a member 
of the Constitutional Convention, and a candidate for United 
States Senator in opposition to Mr. Benton. He held office 



SOME NOTABLE BORDER CHARACTERS 381 

as Judge of the Missouri Supreme Court until his death in 
1824. Wherever he went his undoubted abiHty and force 
won him immediate recognition. 

IlHnois' second lawyer was a man of entirely different 
character, yet of unquestioned mental capacity. This was 
Isaac Darnielle. He possessed a strong natural intellect, 
excellent education, and a fair knowledge of law. An easy, 
approachable manner, a portly, good-natured appearance, 
coupled with an off-hand generosity in money matters, made 
him extremely popular among the masses of the people. As 
a lawyer he met with good success, and was an agreeable 
speaker, but somehow lacked the facility for winning the 
confidence of men. It was said his early education was 
directed toward the ministry, and that he had even spoken 
from the pulpit before turning to the law as being more con- 
genial. But his great forte, if posterity does him justice, 
must have been, in the language of another, " in the court 
of Venus, where he apparently practised with consummate 
art, and with more studious assiduity than his books ever 
received." His reputation in this respect became firmly 
established all over the infant Territory, and however he 
may have failed in winning the trust of men, he met with 
little difficulty in touching the hearts of women. He was 
never married, and yet seemingly was never without a wife, 
and this course of procedure brought its inevitable con- 
sequences. While youth and vigor remained, all went well, 
but with advancing age Darnielle was obliged to abandon 
his profession, and finally died in Western Kentucky, at the 
age of sixty, an impoverished and neglected school-teacher. 

Ninian Edwards, governor of the Territory, and later 
of the State, and United States Senator from Illinois, was 
among the most prominent lUinoisans of those early days, 
and was a man of exceedingly fine talents. He was born 
in Monroe County, Maryland, in 1775, and was consequently 
thirty-four years old at his first arrival at Kaskaskia. His 



382 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

education was collegiate, and at the time of coming west 
to Kentucky, he had already commenced the study of law. 
Selecting lands in Nelson County on behalf of a brother and 
sister, who had sent him there for that purpose, he acquired 
some farming property of his own, and remained to care 
for it. Having ample means to gratify every inclination in 
such a new country, and not restrained by the influence of 
society, the young man drifted into dissipation and other 
indiscretions. At the end of two years of this wild life, young 
Edwards broke completely away from his dissolute com- 
panions, removed to Russellville, and at once devoted him- 
self to laborious study. Nothing in his after life better 
illustrates the sterling manhood of the man than this firm 
refusal to be permanently ruined. Admitted to the bar, he 
at once attained eminence. By the time he was thirty-two, 
he had been Judge of the Court of Appeals, and Chief Justice 
of the State. Soon after, an associate justice of this same 
court, Boyle, received the appointment of Territorial Gov- 
ernor of Illinois, but did not desire the position. It was 
arranged between the two that Edwards should have the 
appointment, and Boyle become Chief Justice. He arrived 
at Kaskaskia in 1809, and was ever after, so long as he lived, 
connected intimately with Illinois, and a prominent figure 
in her political and military history. For the first nine years 
he was practically the entire source of authoritative power 
throughout the wide Illinois country, which he ruled with 
the aid of three judges of his own appointment. 

" Edwards," says Governor Ford, " was a large, well-made 
man, with a noble, princely appearance, never condescending to the 
common low arts of electioneering. Whenever he went out 
among the people he arrayed himself in the style of a gentleman of 
the olden time, dressed in fine broadcloth, with short breeches, long 
stockings, and high, fur-topped boots; was drawn in a fine carriage 
driven by a negro ; and for success he relied upon his speeches, 
which were delivered with great pomp, and in a style of diffuse and 



80ME NOTABLE BORDER CHARACTERS 383 

florid eloquence. When he was inaugurated in 1826, he appeared 
before the General Assembly wearing a golden-laced coat, and with 
great pomp he pronounced his first message to the houses of the 
legislature. His manners were always courtly, and he was ex- 
tremely pleased at making a good social appearance, being ever a 
special favorite among the ladies. Even in preparation for an 
arduous Indian campaign, his camp at Edwardsville was transformed 
into a seeming picnic-ground by the vast numbers of the gentle sex 
thronging thither, and the gay parties given them by the Governor 
and his officers. He died of the cholera at Belleville in 1833." 

One of Governor Edwards's opponents for that position 
of honor in the campaign of 1826 was Adolphus Frederick 
Hubbard, who certainly deserves mention here for his very- 
oddity. His speeches indicate the mental calibre of the man. 
During this struggle he once delivered himself as follows; 
*' Fellow-citizens, I offer myself as a candidate before you, 
for the office of Governor. I do not pretend to be a man 
of extraordinary talents ; nor do I claim to be equal to 
Julius Caesar, or Napoleon Bonaparte, nor yet to be as great 
a man as my opponent, Governor Edwards. Nevertheless 
I think I can govern you pretty well. I do not think that 
it will require a very extraordinary smart man to govern you; 
for, to tell you the truth, fellow-citizens, I do not think you 
will be very hard to govern, nohow." This individual had 
long before made himself famous for odd speeches, one of 
the most widely repeated being an address delivered in the 
legislature on a bill to pay a bounty on wolf-scalps. It ran 
thus: 

"Mr. Speaker, I rise, before the question is put on this bill, to 
say a word for my constituents. Mr. Speaker, I have never seen a 
wolf. I cannot say that I am very well acquainted with the nature 
and habits of wolves. Mr. Speaker, I have said that I had never 
seen a wolf. But now I remember that once on a time, as Judge 
Brown and I were riding across the Bon Pas prairie, we looked over 
the prairie about three miles, and Judge Brown said, ' Hubbard, 
look ! there goes a wolf ! ' And I looked, and I looked, and I 



384 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

looked, and I said, 'Judge, where ? ' And he said ' There '; and I 
looked again, and this time, in the edge of a hazel thicket, about 
three miles across the prairie, I think I saw the wolf's tail. Mr. 
Speaker, if I did not see a wolf this time, I think I never saw 
one. But I have heard much, and read more, about this animal. I 
have studied his natural history. By the by, history is divided into 
two parts ; there is first the history of the fabulous, and secondly of 
the nonfabulous, or unknown ages. Mr. Speaker, from all these 
sources of information, I learn that the wolf is a very noxious thing 
to devour ; that he rises up in the dead and secret hours of the 
night, when all nature reposes in silent oblivion, and then commits 
the most terrible devastations upon the rising generation of hogs 
and sheep, Mr. Speaker, I have done, and return my thanks to the 
House for their kind attention to my remarks." 

John Reynolds, fourth Governor of Illinois, was like- 
wise identified with the earlier days, and was a typical fron- 
tier character and politician. He stands forth peculiarly 
prominent in the annals of the time, from having written 
and published an interesting but disconnected account of 
his own life, and a contemporary State history. He was born 
in Pennsylvania, in the year 1788, of Irish parentage, and 
reached Illinois in 1800. In early manhood he travelled 
to Tennessee and attended school, receiving, he claimed, a 
"classical education"; but, as Ford remarks, "no one would 
ever have suspected it from either his writings or speeches." 
This, however, may have been merely an eccentricity of the 
man. Reared from his earliest years among a frontier peo- 
ple, where he imbibed their peculiarities of manner, customs, 
and speech, he disliked polish, despised fashion, and became 
addicted to inordinate profanity. He apparently never 
tried to rid himself of these early habits, seeming rather to 
be proud of them, as thus evidencing his closeness to the 
common people. Nevertheless, blunt, coarse, rude as he 
very often was, this Americanized Irishman possessed tal- 
ent of no mean order, and a vast amount of shrewdness. 
His garrulity made him even more conspicuous, and, 



SOME NOTABLE BORDER CHARACTERS 385 

considering the high positions to which he attained, 
he may certainly be ranked among the pubHc oddities of 
lUinois. 

His imagination was fertile, his ideas poured forth re- 
gardless of logical sequence, and even of truth. In life, he 
was by turn farmer, lawyer, soldier, judge, legislator, con- 
gressman, and Governor, and in all these varied positions 
it is but just to say he achieved fair success. One knowing 
him says: " Passing his entire life on the frontier, he had 
acquired all the by-words, catchwords, odd sayings, and 
grotesque figures of speech ever invented by vulgar ingenuity; 
to these he added a copious supply of his own, compounding 
all into a language peculiar to himself, which he insisted on 
using in both public and private." With a kind heart, 
always ready to do a favor, never harboring resentment, it 
was small wonder he won and held votes, completely over- 
whelming the Baptist preacher who ventured to run against 
him for the highest office in the State. In appearance we 
are told that Governor Reynolds was " tall of stature, his 
face long, bony, and deeply furrowed, and under his high, 
narrow forehead rolled his eyes, large and liquid, expressive 
of volubility. His nose projected well downward to his 
ample mouth." Governor Reynolds always sympathized with 
slavery, and in his last days he clouded his record by open 
acts, almost amounting to treason, in his efforts to aid the 
seceding South. He died at Belleville, in May, 1865. 

Beyond Ninian Edwards, already mentioned, we must 
content ourselves with brief mention of a few of the earliest 
United States Senators from Illinois, as being typical of the 
highest life of the people represented. Jesse B. Thomas 
was Edwards's colleague, and served from 1818 until 1829. 
He was at the time of first election a Federal judge, and had 
borne himself with great dignity on the bench, although re- 
ported to be far from a master at the law. By nature a 
politician, he possessed little talent as a speaker, but much 



386 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

skill as a manipulator. After retiring from the Senate he 
attained to no further honors, and died in Ohio about 1853. 

John McLean, of Shawneetown, elected to the Senate 
in 1824, to succeed Edwards, was in many respects the 
most gifted man of his period in Illinois. Born in North 
Carolina in 1791, he came to Shawneetown as a young law- 
yer of twenty-three, and was soon prominent both at the bar 
and in political life. Three years later, he was elected to 
Congress after a campaign strangely marked by courtesy be- 
tween himself and his opponent, Daniel P. Cook. Hitherto 
frontier politics had been fought with bitter personalities. 
He was also frequently a member of the legislature, and 
once Speaker of the House, but never forgot to remain 
a gentleman, even on the " stump." McLean was a born 
orator, a large man, finely proportioned, with light com- 
plexion, and frank, open face. Men instinctively felt con- 
fidence in him, while his eloquence swayed them at his will. 
His death, which occurred in the very prime of his manhood, 
at thirty-nine, was considered a great public loss, and the 
legislature, in memory of his signal services, named a county 
of the State in his honor. 

Elias Kent Kane served in the Senate from 1824 until 
the time of his death in 1835. He was a native of New 
York, coming to Illinois as early as 18 14, and was possessed 
of purity of character, honesty, and benevolent disposition. 
David Jewett Baker was a Senator from Illinois for a short 
time by appointment of the Governor, but failed of sanction 
from the legislature. While a studious, painstaking lawyer, 
he is especially remembered for his active battle, both by 
tongue and pen, against the introduction of slavery into the 
State. He thus gained many bitter enemies, and was once 
openly attacked on the streets of Kaskaskia. His death 
occurred at Alton in 1869. 

The first native Illinoisan ever elevated to the United 
States Senate was Samuel McRoberts. He was born in 



SOME NOTABLE BORDER CHARACTERS 387 

what is now Monroe County, April 12, 1799, received a good 
English education from a private tutor, and studied law at 
Lexington, Kentucky. He was, in turn. Circuit Clerk, Cir- 
cuit Judge, State Senator, United States District Attorney, 
Receiver of Public Moneys, and Solicitor of the General 
Land-office. In December, 1840, he was elected to the 
United States Senate, but died March 22, 1843, at Cincin- 
nati, on his way home from Washington. McRoberts, in 
appearance, was a little above medium height, sparsely 
built, and of a nervous temperament. His head was well 
shapen, but he was swayed by a stubborn will, made more 
conspicuous by high ambition and great energy. As a law- 
yer, he was deeply read, and he won his way by power of 
will, rather than the usual arts of the politician. 

Products of the frontier, representing many different 
trends of thought and degrees of education and ability, 
these few of the many who helped to uplift Illinois from 
savagery to civilization illustrate, each in his or her own 
way, something of the nature of the people behind them — 
rough, perhaps, but manly, coarse from necessary environ- 
ment, yet ever moving steadily upward toward higher things, 
types of true Americans. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE OLD-TIME PREACHERS 

IN the very earliest of the pioneer days, during the period 
of American occupancy, previous to which the Roman 
CathoHc priesthood had held undisputed sway throughout 
the Illinois country, the preachers of the gospel sprang 
largely directly from the body of the people, without any 
previous training, except in religious exhortation and un- 
guided study of the Scriptures. In primitive times it was 
not considered necessary that a teacher of religion should be 
a scholar. The appeal was made to the heart and not the 
head; he was to know the Scriptures literally, to appeal 
fervently, to paint hell and heaven so vividly as to awaken 
repentance in the sinners before him. The congregations 
gathering in the wilderness were composed largely of un- 
learned men and women, and they were most easily touched 
and persuaded by preachers who saw things from their own 
narrow standpoint, and who could move them by use. of 
their own peculiar idioms of speech. 

They were often rough in language, but always in ear- 
nest. Says one who knew them: " Sometimes their sermons 
would turn upon matters of controversy, arguing, with little 
learning but much fervor, on free grace, baptism, free-will, 
election, faith, good works, justification, sanctification, or 
the final perseverance of the saints. Vivid, indeed, were the 
startling word-pictures drawn of the hereafter, and imagina- 
tion never failed them in describing the bliss of heaven, and 
the awful terrors of hell." To their faith these things were 
very real, and their earnestness of belief and description had 
tremendous effect on the untutored minds of those composing 

388 



THE OLD-TIME PREACHERS 389 

their backwoods audiences. Much which actually occurred 
in these primitive gospel meetings, within the shadow of 
groves or sheltered behind the walls of some lonely log 
cabin, when the itinerant preacher, travelling from settle- 
ment to settlement through the wilderness, gathered together 
a little group to hear his words, is to-day almost beyond 
belief. 

The ruder of these avant-courriers of the Cross, being 
plucked directly from the mass of the people, and almost 
totally devoid of even common schooling, made up in loud 
declamation and violent gesticulation their manifest lack 
of informing matter. And it was equally astonishing to 
what length they could speak with nothing really to say. 
One or two poorly digested ideas, crude and illogical, would 
be spun out for an hour or even two, apparently to the 
great edification of their hearers. A sermon's merits were 
tested in three ways, — by its length, its flowery, ornate lan- 
guage, and by the vigor of action exhibited in its delivery. 
Oratory was largely a matter of sound and bluster, driven 
home by strange, forcible gesticulation. The congregation 
must be moved, plunged into tears, shaken by spiritual 
terrors, driven into some outward manifestation of remorse 
for sin, or else the preaching was held as an utter failure. 
The simple-hearted borderers, usually grave and quiet 
enough in their daily, plodding, home duties, responded 
quickly to professional play on their emotions; and he was 
hailed and welcomed as the strongest exponent of the Word 
who could create the greatest excitement in his meetings. 

Nevertheless, much as we may find now to criticise in 
the methods then employed by Methodist circuit-rider, or 
itinerant Baptist or Presbyterian, these early preachers of 
Illinois performed an important and necessary work. Their 
earnestness, suffering, hardships, and unselfish ministry en- 
title them to the world's respect. They inculcated justice 
and morality, and in their own way, a sadly unpolished 



390 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

way, perhaps, yet the surest for their age, drove deep 
into the consciences of the people the story of the 
Nazarene, with reward for virtue and the certain punish- 
ment of sin. In charity, in humbleness of life, in abundance 
of toil, they practised all they preached. At this time, when 
the country was so poor that a paid and settled ministry 
was impossible, these men travelled and preached without 
charge, often laboring week-days to aid those in whose homes 
they stopped, and always ready to sacrifice for the sake of 
others who struggled. They were true evangelists, living 
literally day by day, year after year, the life of self renunci- 
ation laid down by Christ. They believed with positive 
certainty that they saw the souls of men rushing to perdition, 
and they desired no higher mission in life than to grasp and 
save. Their words and efforts did much to mould the char- 
acter of the early population, and upon their self-devotion 
to duty rest the foundations of Protestantism in Illinois. 

Of all the religious gatherings of the frontier, the camp- 
meeting was the culmination. Here the settlements for 
miles around gathered together in a vast spiritual and social 
feast, and the emotional nature was given complete sway. 
Preachers from far and near, often representing different 
denominations, gave utterance to their faith, and the scenes 
witnessed were as full of color as the strange wilderness in 
which they were enacted. Henry Howe has drawn the 
picture of such a gathering, worthy of reproduction. 

" The notice has been circulated for several weeks or months, 
and all are eager to attend the long-expected occasion. The 
country, perhaps for fifty miles around, is excited with the cheerful 
anticipation of the approaching festival of religious feeling and 
social friendship. On the appointed day, coaches, chaises, wagons, 
carts, people on horseback and on foot, in multitudes, with provis- 
ion wagons, tents, mattresses, household implements, and cooking 
utensils, are seen hurrying from every direction toward the central 
point. It is in the midst of a grove of beautiful, lofty, umbrageous 
trees, natural to the Western country, clothed in their deepest 



THE OLD-TIME PREACHERS 391 

verdure, and near some sparkling stream or gushing fountain, which 
supplies the host with wholesome water for man and beast. The 
encampment spreads through the forest, over hundreds of acres, and 
soon the sylvan village springs up as if by magic ; the line of tents 
and booths is pitched in a semicircle or in a four-sided parallelo- 
gram, enclosing an area of two acres or more, for the arrangement 
of seats and aisles around the rude pulpit and altar for the throng- 
ing multitude, all eager to hear the heavenly message. 

*' Toward night, the hour of solemn service approaches, when 
the vast sylvan bower of the deep umbrageous forest is illumined 
by numerous lamps suspended around the line of tents which 
encircles the public area, beside the frequent altars distributed over 
the same, which send forth a glare of light from their fagot fires 
upon the worshipping throng and the majestic forest with an impos- 
ing effect, which elevates the soul to fit converse with its Creator, 
God. 

" The scenery of the most brilliant theatre in the world is 
only a painting for children compared to this. Meantime, the 
multitudes, with the highest excitement of social feeling, added to 
the general enthusiasm of expectation, pass from tent to tent, inter- 
change apostolic greetings and embraces, and talk of the ap- 
proaching solemnities. A few minutes suffice to finish the evening 
repast, when the moon (for they take thought to appoint the meet- 
ing at the proper time of the moon) begins to show its disc above 
the dark summits of the mountains, and a few stars are seen glim- 
mering in the west, and the service begins. The whole constitutes 
a temple worthy of the grandeur of God. An old man in a dress 
of the quaintest simplicity ascends a platform, wipes the dust from 
his spectacles, and, in a voice of suppressed emotion, gives out the 
hymn, of which the whole assembled multitude can recite the 
words, to be sung with an air in which every voice can join. We 
should esteem meanly the heart that would not thrill as the song is 
heard, ' like a noise of many waters,' echoing among the hills and 
mountains. The service proceeds. The hoary orator talks of 
God, of eternity, of a judgment to come, and of all that is im- 
pressive beyond. He speaks of his experiences, — his toils and 
his travels, his persecutions and his welcomes, and how many he had 
seen in hope, in peace, and in triumph gathered to their fathers ; and 



392 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

when he speaks of the short space that remains to him, his only 
regret is that he can no more proclaim, in the silence of death, the 
unsearchable riches and mercies of his crucified Redeemer. 

"No wonder, as the speaker pauses to dash the gathering 
moisture from his own eye, that his audience is dissolved in tears, 
or uttering exclamations of penitence. Nor is it cause for admira- 
tion, that many who prided themselves on an estimation of a higher 
intellect and a nobler insensibility than the crowd, catch the infec- 
tious feeling, and become women and children in their turn, while 
others, ' who came to scofF, remain to pray.' " 

A peculiarity of these intensely emotional meetings, 
which has never been clearly accounted for, was known as 
"the jerks." That such occurrences were common there 
can be no doubt, probably resulting from intense nervous 
strain. It took, however, many forms, influenced by the 
temperament of the victim. Most frequently the subject 
was instantaneously seized with spasms or convulsions in 
every muscle, nerve, and tendon. His head was thrown 
or jerked from side to side with such rapidity that it was 
impossible to distinguish his visage, and the most Hvely fears 
were awakened lest he should dislocate his neck or dash 
out his brains. His body partook of the same impulse, and 
was hurried on by like jerks over every obstacle, fallen 
trunks of trees, or in a church, over pews and benches, appar- 
ently to the most imminent danger of being bruised and 
mangled. It was useless to attempt to hold or restrain him, 
and the paroxysm was permitted to exhaust itself gradually. 
Oftentimes, under the spell of this strange mental pheno- 
menon, the victims would fall to the floor unconscious, or in 
trances. The great Methodist-Presbyterian camp-meeting 
at Cane Ridge in 1801 was especially memorable for such 
results. An observer writes of this occasion: 

" Few, if any, escaped without being affected. Such as tried to 
run from it were frequently struck on the way, or impelled by 
some alarming signal to return. No circumstances at this meeting 



THE OLD-TIME PREACHERS 393 

appeared more striking than the great numbers that fell on the 
third night, and remained unconscious of external objects for hours 
together. To prevent their being trodden under foot by the mul- 
titude, they were collected together and laid out in order, on two 
squares of the meeting-house, until a considerable part of the floor 
was covered, where they remained in charge of their friends, until 
they should pass through the strange phenomena of their con- 
version. The number that fell at this meeting was reckoned at 
about three thousand, among whom were several Presbyterian 
ministers, who, according to their own confession, had hitherto 
possessed only a speculative knowledge of religion. There, the 
formal professor, and the deist, and the intemperate, met with one 
common lot, and confessed with equal candor that they were 
destitute of the true knowledge of God, and strangers to the 
religion of Jesus Christ." 

The progress of early Protestant religious work in 
Illinois can be traced with very fair accuracy, although un- 
doubtedly there were numerous obscure laborers in the 
field — licentiates and local preachers — whose names have 
not been remembered. The most careful epitome is Short's 
essay in the "Historical Transactions" for 1902. While 
a wandering Separate Baptist preacher, the Rev. James 
Smith, was in all probability the first to deliver a Protestant 
sermon within the present limits of the State, coming here, 
presumably on a visit to friends, as early as 1787, the earliest 
organized religious body performing definite labor in this 
region was the Methodist. Smith, as detailed elsewhere, 
was captured by the Indians, and finally redeemed by the 
contributions of the settlers. 

During his brief period of service in Illinois, among his 
converts was numbered Captain Joseph Ogle, who later 
became the leading Methodist layman in the new settlements, 
a class-leader, and occasional local preacher. Ogle arrived 
in Illinois as early as 1785, and died in 1821, aged eighty 
years, a high type of the borderman. The earliest Meth- 
odist preacher to invade this section of western wilderness 



394 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

was Joseph Lillard, a local preacher from Kentucky, who 
gathered a small class in Monroe County, and installed 
Ogle as class-leader, in 1793. Lillard was a typical pioneer 
preacher, a sort of advance scout, never remaining any 
length of time in a district, but laying the foundation upon 
which others could follow and build. He was gifted with 
rude eloquence, and delighted in controversy. Some five 
years later, during which period Ogle had held his class 
together under much difficulty, another travelling preacher 
of this denomination, John Clark, visited the field, and by 
his efforts somewhat increased the membership and interest. 
He remained, however, only a brief time, and passed across 
the river into Missouri in 1798. 

The same year which marked Clark's arrival, there 
came to the settlements their first resident minister. This 
was Hosea Riggs, and his subsequent work proved both 
important and permanent. He settled on the American 
Bottom, in St. Clair County, and was instrumental in 
organizing a number of Methodist societies throughout 
Madison County. He remained in Illinois until his death, 
which occurred at Belleville, in 1841. Mr. Riggs, while 
not an educated man, possessed pulpit ability of the kind 
best adapted to the region in which he labored. The Illi- 
nois mission was organized, under the care of the Kentucky 
Conference, in 1803, with Benjamin Young named as trav- 
elling pastor. A number of meeting-points were established, 
principally in the Wabash neighborhood, but little perma- 
nent work was accomplished. In 1806 Jesse Walker was 
assigned to this charge. His labor was enthusiastically under- 
taken, and proved successful. Settlement after settlement 
was reached by this indefatigable missionary, and the 
gospel was fearlessly preached where it had never before 
been heard. He, more than any other, was instrumental 
in spreading the doctrines of Methodism throughout South- 
ern Illinois. 




A PIONEER ILLINOIS PREACHER 



THE OLD-TIME PREACHERS 395 

In the year 1807, Mr. Walker conducted successfully the 
first camp-meeting ever held within the present limits of the 
State. It took place about three miles south of Edwards- 
ville, in Madison County, and resulted in numerous con- 
versions, and an awakening of religious interest throughout 
all the surrounding region. The first American male child 
born in Illinois — Enoch Moore — was converted at this 
time, under Walker's preaching, and afterwards became a 
local Methodist preacher of considerable note. The camp- 
meeting continued for several days, with many manifesta- 
tions of power. Among other Methodist preachers who 
travelled in Illinois during the earlier days — all being cir- 
cuit riders, with no fixed place of abode, or definite salary — 
the more prominent were: John Clingan, James Ward, 
William McKendree (afterwards Bishop), Samuel Parker, 
James Axley, John Scripps, Samuel Thompson, Jesse 
Haille, and Stephen Biggs. The constant sacrifices and 
perils of these humble messengers of the Cross are almost 
beyond belief. Their days were passed in the saddle; their 
nights in exhortation and prayer. No hardship of the wil- 
derness was unknown, no toil too great; through storms 
of Winter and across the parched Summer prairies they rode 
to keep their appointments in the little settlements, their 
clothing often in rags, their bodies weak from lack of nour- 
ishment. The implied pecuniary reward for such unre- 
mitting service was eighty dollars a year, but fortunate 
indeed was that preacher who ever received the half of it. 

In the year 18 12, Peter Cartwright was named as elder 
of the Wabash district, within the limits of which he had 
toiled as an itinerant some years earlier. In 1824 he removed 
to what was then the uttermost frontier of Sangamon County, 
and became the most famous of the early missionaries of the 
church, his ministry covering all the northern and western 
portions of the State. He was a remarkable character, a 
preacher of exceptional power, possessing phenomenal energy. 



396 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

His religious influence was widespread, and in his later 
years he prepared an autobiography, giving many a vivid 
picture of the hard life of circuit-riders, and the peculiar 
conditions under which they were compelled to labor. An- 
other early preacher of great power and influence for good 
throughout the Illinois country, to which he devoted the best 
years of his life, was Peter Akers. Zadoc Casey was a well- 
known local Methodist preacher in Illinois for over forty 
years. 

Some few of these earliest preachers were more distin- 
guished by their eccentricities, than by their religious labors. 
Among these the most remarkable, perhaps, was William 
Stribling, whose extraordinary command of language be- 
came the laughing-stock of the border. 

Baptist work within the State was nearly, if not quite, 
as early undertaken as that of the Methodist Church, but, 
from the nature of the church government, was not so im- 
mediately successful. The Baptist polity looks to the 
settled pastorate, as, indeed, do nearly all of the Protestant 
denominations; but in a new, sparsely settled, and poverty- 
ruled land, the itinerant system of Methodism gives great 
advantage. The first Baptist preachers to visit Illinois were 
not educated men, but were adapted, from their controversial 
gifts, as well as rough and ready speech, for successful labors 
among the pioneer settlements. We have little detailed 
record of their earliest labors, yet that these were widespread, 
and in a way sufficient, is evidenced by their proving such 
constant thorns in the flesh of their Methodist brethren. 
Continually in the reports of the latter do we meet with 
complaints of their interference and argumentative inclina- 
tion. That they were successful in spreading their doc- 
trines widely, and in winning converts, is evidenced by the 
fact that in 1834 they had within the State nineteen associa- 
tions, with one hundred and ninety-five associated and five 
unassociated churches, one hundred and forty-six preachers, 



THE OLD-TIME PREACHERS 397 

and 5,635 communicants. It is doubtful if any other re- 
ligious body in Illinois was, at that date, as strong. 

They, besides, enjoyed the honor of bringing to Illinois 
the first educated ministry. By 1820, several scholarly 
Baptist preachers had located within the State, the earliest 
and most widely known being the Rev. John M. Peck, who 
located at Rock Spring, St. Clair County. This gentleman 
possessed not only rare natural gifts, but was also highly 
educated, achieving considerable success as an author. 
The higher class of men who from this date began coming 
into the State and assuming charge of permanent congrega- 
tions were either sent or encouraged to come by Northern 
and Eastern missionary societies, who helped to meet their 
expenses. For a long time they were looked upon with jeal- 
ousy and distrust by many of the old, uneducated race of 
preachers and their loyal followers. Yet the time had come 
for a change; towns were springing up everywhere, and the 
people required a settled ministry. Slowly, as the lines of 
the frontier receded, the younger men, with new methods of 
work and broader culture, pressed their way to the front, 
and the emotional border religion became more and more a 
memory. 

The Presbyterian ministry were early in this region, and 
performed excellent work even in the itinerant days. They 
apparently did not experience as great difficulty as the 
Baptists in cooperating with the Methodist preachers in re- 
ligious exercises, probably because their details of belief 
were not so radically opposed. Quite frequently these two 
denominations united in camp-meeting services, Methodist 
and Presbyterian preaching from the same stump, and vying 
with each other as to which should win the greater popular 
approval for fervid speech and violent gesture. The first 
minister of this latter denomination to reach the Illinois 
country was John Evans Finley, who came to Kaskaskia in 
1797. He was soon followed by two licentiates, J. F. 



398 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

Schermerhorn, and Samuel J. Mills. These were still alone 
upon the field as late as 1812. The oldest Presbyterian 
church within the State is that at Sharon, in White County, 
which was organized by the Rev. James McCready in 18 16. 
By 1830, however, this denomination numbered fifty 
churches and thirty-four ministers. 

The other branches of Protestantism were considerably 
later in planting their banners on Illinois soil, although few, 
if any, of importance in the religious world were unrepre- 
sented by 1840. As early as 1834, the Episcopalians and 
Congregationalists had several churches organized and 
supplied with ministers. The latter, undoubtedly, had nu- 
merous ordained representatives in the Illinois field prior to 
this date, but they preferred working under the Presbyterian 
polity, the impression long prevailing in religious circles that 
the Congregational government was not adapted to the 
West. Probably the first to actually try the experiment were 
those pastors who accompanied colonies from the New 
England States, continuing in Illinois all the conditions of 
their former Eastern churches. 

With this incoming of a more highly educated ministr)'-, 
there was inspired a desire for better educational facilities. 
It is impossible here to trace the story of primitive school- 
teaching, but we know that, in Illinois history, it began with 
some faithful pioneer mother giving to her children some 
fragmentary knowledge from her own memory. The first 
school in this entire region, established since the American 
conquest of the Territory, was opened near Bellefontaine, 
by Samuel Seely, in 1783. John Doyle taught in the same 
neighborhood at about the same time, and his successor was 
Francis Clark, who was addicted to intemperance. He was 
followed by an inoffensive Irishman, named Halfpenny, 
who persevered in his vocation for several years. The 
branches taught were spelling, reading, writing, and arith- 
metic, and these in a very imperfect manner. Later still, 



THE OLD-TIME PREACHERS 399 

an eccentric clergyman named John Clark gratuitously in- 
structed the ambitious youth of the settlement. 

In 1825 w^^ enacted the first law providing for the incor- 
poration of common schools, although, when the State was 
admitted to the Union in 18 18, one thirty-sixth part of all 
the public lands was reserved for school purposes. Coin- 
cident with this starting of common schools, and the arrival 
of an educated ministry, was the demand for higher institu- 
tions of learning, in the securing of which the various church 
organizations were largely instrumental. Illinois College 
was founded at Jacksonville in 1829, ^"^ ^Y 1^5*^ ^^^ seven 
teachers, thirty-four students, and ninety-three alumni, with 
a library of four thousand volumes. It was made possible 
largely through the efforts of the " Yale Band of Seven," 
a ministerial organization. McKendree College was founded 
at Lebanon, St. Clair County, in 1835, by the Methodists, 
and by 1850 had four teachers and sixty students, its library 
containing eighteen hundred volumes. The Congregation- 
alists and Baptists were represented as early as 1835 ^7 f^nox 
College at Galesburg, and Shurtleff College at Upper Alton, 
both successful institutions. Others rapidly arose through- 
out the State as population and wealth increased and the 
spirit of refinement took possession of the people. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 
BORDER OUTLAWRY 

ALMOST every district of the United States in its earlier 
days of scant population has been the scene of open 
crime. Outlaws, fleeing in desperation from the restraints 
of civilization, w^here enforcement of law has become method- 
ical, find in the wilderness a certain license for the carrying 
on of their nefarious trade. The settlements are small and 
widely scattered, with broad spaces of unknown forest and 
prairie lying between; neighbors scarcely know one another, 
and the usual machinery of government is either not yet 
fully organized, or very imperfectly enforced. It is easy, 
under these circumstances, to attain secrecy, while the very 
life of the border naturally breeds a class of rough and des- 
perate men, capable, under efficient leadership, of the com- 
mission of almost any crime. Such has been the frontier story 
from the very beginning, and through just such an experi- 
ence Illinois was compelled to battle her way into the ranks 
of the law-abiding. 

Probably there is no county in the State without its local 
traditions of organized outlawry during the period of earlier 
occupancy; its tales, oftentimes weird and gruesome enough, 
of unpunished crimes., extending often over many years, 
until popular sentiment became too strong to continue to 
harbor the criminals. Localities are even to this day pointed 
out by the older residents as having been the headquarters 
of famous gangs of horse-thieves, negro-stealers, and coun- 
terfeiters, whose record of crime, indeed, probably covered 
every atrocity known to our modern statutes. 

We have seen in our travels about the State, many 

400 



BORDER OUTLAWRY 401 

such localities, and have been regaled with local traditions of 
former " bad men " which would afford most interesting 
reading could fact and fiction only be satisfactorily divorced 
so that real history be born. In one county a mysterious 
murder-house yet stands deserted and feared even by modern 
neighbors; in another, names and details were furnished to 
form a thrilling romance. Along the rough land bordering 
the rivers these legends are most numerous, and not a few of 
the outlaw names mentioned have attained some notice in 
history; while the interior counties, even those originally 
settled by staid New England colonists, are not wholly with- 
out their records of early and reckless criminal life. In 
Munson Township of Henry County, such a gang, famous 
in its time for desperate deeds, held sway for many years, 
extending their operations almost up to the time of the Civil 
War, and in Knox County the delver after the curious in 
border life is told of a famous plum thicket, tangled and 
impenetrable save by means of a secret path, where hun- 
dreds of stolen horses were securely hidden away on their 
long journey southward. 

Apparently, as guided by these various old-time tales of 
lawless adventure, and the few glimpses afforded by ac- 
knowledged history, we may conclude that the numerous 
outlaw gangs infesting Illinois Territory were usually or- 
ganized for specific crimes, the nature of which was some- 
what determined by the peculiarities of the country in which 
operations were being carried on. Along the rivers deeds of 
violence were more prevalent, acts of piracy being frequent, 
and oftentimes accompanied by murder. Emigrants were 
sometimes attacked in force, while the solitary traveller, 
whether by boat or on horseback, was held up remorselessly, 
being indeed fortunate to escape with his life. The rough 
hills of the southern section of the State contained many a 
rendezvous for such robber bands, but the most famous hid- 
ing place was at Cave-in-Rock, on the Ohio, a short distance 



402 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

below Shawneetown. Here, about 1800, flourished a famous 
robber band under command of a bloodthirsty desperado 
named Meason or Mason. He was a man of more than 
ordinary talents, of gigantic stature, and was both a land 
and water pirate, infesting the rivers and woods, and impar- 
tially despoiling all who fell in his way. Sometimes he 
plundered the descending boats, but generally preferred to 
wait, and take the owners with their money on their return. 
Finally, driven from his cave by encroaching settlements, 
Meason and his band moved farther south into Tennessee 
and infested the great route then known as the " Natchez 
and Nashville Trace." Here he became a terror to every 
traveller. Associated with him in every species of outlawry 
were his two sons, and a well-organized gang of miscreants, 
their operations extending from the Mississippi to the Pearl. 
A reward was offered for him, dead or alive, and he was finally 
killed by treachery, two of his own band, in hope of securing 
the reward, striking him from behind with a tomahawk, 
while he was engaged in counting some ill-gotten treasure. 
Both traitors were afterwards executed, and the entire gang 
either killed or scattered. Cave-in-Rock, where they hid 
so long, was peculiarly adapted for such a purpose, its par- 
tially concealed entrance commanding a wide view both up 
and down the river. Within, it is about one hundred feet 
long, eighty wide, and twenty-five in height. The floor is 
nearly level throughout the entire length of the centre, the 
sides rising in strong grades, like seats in the pit of a theatre. 
It is even now a great curiosity, being connected with an- 
other, still more gloomy but of less size, situated exactly 
above. These are united by a vertical passage of about 
fourteen feet, to ascend which is like passing up a chimney, 
while the top of the bluff is yet far above. Many a legend 
of suffering and torture, wild feasting, and desperate encoun- 
ter, haunts this spot, which was later occupied by other 
desperate bands, and became the terror of the river. 



BORDER OUTLAWRY 403 

Yet these were not alone in their work of crime along 
the Illinois waterways. From the Wabash to the Fever 
there were many bands operating, no less desperate, although 
never attaining to equal nefarious fame. The most notori- 
ous of these was a quite extensive organization of cut-throats, 
under command of two desperadoes who infested the Mis- 
sissippi below St. Louis, and carried on a regular and exten- 
sive system of river piracy, principally in the neighborhood 
of Grand Tower. In 1787, a richly laden barge, owned by 
a Mr. Beausoliel, came up the river from New Orleans. 
At what has since been named Beausoliel's Island, some of 
these robbers boarded the vessel, overpowered the crew 
and the owner, and forced them below. Beausoliel's whole 
fortune was in the barge, and he was consequently in agony. 
But all was saved to him through the heroic daring of a negro, 
one of the crew. This negro, Cacasotte, was short and 
slender, but exceedingly strong and active, and the pecu- 
liar characteristics of the race had, in him, given place to 
features of exceeding grace and beauty. As soon as the 
robbers had taken possession, Cacasotte appeared overjoyed. 
He danced, sang, laughed, and soon induced them to be- 
believe that his ebullitions of pleasure arose from their 
having liberated him from irksome slavery. His constant 
attention to their smallest wants won their confidence, 
and he alone was permitted to roam unmolested and 
unwatched through the vessel. 

Having thus far effected his object, he seized the first 
opportunity to speak to Mr. Beausoliel and beg permission 
to rid him of the dangerous intruders. He laid his plan 
before his master, who, with a good deal of hesitation, ac- 
ceded to it. Cacasotte was cook, and it was agreed between 
him and his fellow-conspirators, two negroes, that the signal 
for dinner should be the signal for action. When the hour 
arrived, the pirates assembled in considerable numbers on 
the deck, and stationed themselves on the bow and the stern 



404 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

and along the sides, to prevent any rising of the men. Caca- 
sotte went among them with the most unconcerned look and 
demeanor imaginable. As soon as his comrades had taken 
their stations, he placed himself at the bow, near one of the 
robbers, a stout, herculean fellow, who was armed cap-a-pie. 
Cacasotte gave the preconcerted signal, and immediately the 
robber near him was struggling in the water. With the speed 
of lightning he ran from one to another, as they were sitting 
on the sides of the boat, and in a few seconds' time had 
thrown several overboard. Then seizing an oar he struck on 
the head those who had attempted to save themselves by 
grappling the running-boards; then he shot, with rifles that 
had been dropped on deck, those who swam away. In the 
meantime his comrades had done almost as much execu- 
tion as their leader. The deck was soon cleared, and the 
robbers who remained below were too few to offer any 
resistance. But these did not comprise all the band ; the 
remnant continued their depredations until the next year, 
when they were broken up, and all kinds of valuable mer- 
chandise, the fruits of their crimes, were found on the 
island. 

At a later period, the celebrated counterfeiter, Studevant, 
fixed his residence in Illinois, on the Ohio, and for several 
years set the laws at defiance. Howe's description of him 
and his work follows: 

" He was a man of talent and address, j5ossessed mechanical 
genius, was an expert artist, skilled in some of the sciences, and 
excelled as an engraver. For several years he resided in a secluded 
spot, where all his immediate neighbors were his confederates, or 
persons whose friendship he had conciliated. At any time, by the 
blowing of a horn, he could summon from fifty to a hundred 
armed men to his defence, while the few quiet farmers around, 
who lived near enough to get their feelings interested, and who 
were really not at all implicated in his crimes, rejoiced in the im- 
punity with which he practised his schemes. He was a grave, 



BORDER OUTLAWRY 405 

quiet, inoffensive-looking man, who commanded the obedience of 
his comrades and the respect of his neighbors. He had a very 
excellent farm ; his house was one of the best in the country ; his 
domestic arrangements were liberal and well ordered. Yet this 
man was the most notorious counterfeiter that ever infested our 
country, and carried on his nefarious art to an extent which no 
other person has ever attempted. His confederates were scattered 
over the whole Western country, receiving, through regular chan- 
nels of intercourse, their regular supplies of counterfeit bank notes, 
for which they paid him a stipulated price — sixteen dollars in cash 
for one hundred in counterfeit bills. 

" His security arose partly from his caution in not allowing his 
subordinates to pass a counterfeit bill or do any other unlawful act 
in the State in which he lived, and in his obliging them to be 
especially careful of their deportment in the county of his residence, 
— measures which effectually protected him from the civil authority; 
for, although all the counterfeit bank notes with which a vast region 
was inundated were made in his house, that fact never could be 
proved by legal evidence. 

*' But he became a great nuisance from the immense quantity 
of spurious paper which he threw into circulation ; and although 
personally he never committed any acts of violence, and is not 
known to have sanctioned any, the unprincipled felons by whom 
he was surrounded were guilty of many acts of desperate atrocity; 
and Studevant, though he escaped the arm of the law, was at last, 
with all his confederates, driven from the country by the enraged 
people, who rose almost in mass, to rid themselves of one whose 
presence they had long considered an evil and a disgrace." 

Many of these outlaws, widely scattered, and no longer 
possessing a talented leader in crime, became professional 
horse-thieves, and connected themselves with the numerous 
desperate gangs which, in that early day, operated extensively 
throughout every section of the State. " Nigger-stealing " 
was confined almost entirely to the more southern counties ; 
but the stealing of horses became a much wider general 
industry, and few, indeed, were the counties without a well- 
organized gang engaged exclusively in this business. So 



4o6 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

extensive did this species of crime become, that regular 
routes of travel, with convenient hiding-places, such as that 
already mentioned in Knox County, w^ere follow^ed the entire 
length of the State, and for many years the legal authorities 
were utterly powerless to convict, owing to the wide influ- 
ence exercised by the outlaws in those neighborhoods where 
they made their homes and freely spent their money. 
Pitched battles between these desperadoes and the officers of 
the law were frequent; murder was more than once resorted 
to, and court-houses were even burned to destroy evidence, 
the whole country being at times in a state of terror. The 
depredations continued almost unchecked until the people 
themselves rose in the form of ** Regulators," hanging and 
driving out at the muzzles of rifles the worst offenders. 

Regarding the work of these " Regulators," only the 
more important aff'airs can be dwelt upon, but they were 
probably more or less in evidence in every portion of the 
State. The fact that Nauvoo, during the Mormon occu- 
pancy, was a very hot-bed of crime, and especially a hiding- 
place for many dangerous counterfeiters, had much to do 
with those uprisings which finally drove the " Saints " be- 
yond the Mississippi. As early as 1816 these uprisings of 
honest settlers began for the purpose of ridding the country 
of undesirable characters. We must confess that, much 
as mob rule is to be deprecated, these men were largely jus- 
tified by the circumstances. The entire region was already 
overrun by counterfeiters and horse-thieves, while highway 
robbery and even murder was not unfrequent. No traveller 
was safe, no settler felt sure of retaining his stock overnight. 
Even the smaller towns were boldly invaded in search after 
plunder, and isolated merchants were held up at the point 
of the gun. In many counties the outlaws were so numerous 
and well organized as to set the laws impudently at defi- 
ance. Sheriffs, justices of the peace, and constables were of 
their number, and even some of the judges of the county 



BORDER OUTLAWRY 407 

courts ; while numerous friends, some apparently of the 
highest respectability, shielded them from punishment. 
When arrested, they easily escaped from the poorly con- 
structed jails, or packed the jury, or used lying witnesses to 
prove themselves innocent. Conviction, by the usual course 
of procedure, proved practically impossible. 

It was under such intolerable conditions that the people 
finally took the law into their own hands. The Gov- 
ernor and judges of the Territory, realizing the necessity 
for such urgent action, winked at these proceedings, and 
for a time lynch law ruled the entire region, and purged it of 
a great deal of evil. These bodies of Regulators, as Gov- 
ernor Ford describes them, were in numbers about equal to 
a company of soldiers, and their officers were elected as in 
the militia. Their active operations were conducted almost 
entirely at night. When assembled for duty, they marched, 
armed and equipped as if for actual war, to the residence or 
lurking-place of some undoubted criminal, arrested, tried, 
and punished him on the spot. The usual punishment 
inflicted by these impromptu tribunals was a severe whipping 
and banishment from the Territory, although there were 
many instances where old offenders were promptly hanged 
on the nearest tree. In most of the districts thus patrolled 
this method proved sufficiently efficacious, yet for many 
years a large and desperate gang of ruffians held almost 
absolute control of Pope, Massac, and other counties border- 
ing the Ohio River, resisting every effort to dislodge them. 
They even built a fort of considerable strength in Pope 
County, and for a time set the government at open defiance. 
It was not until 1831 that measures were taken which re- 
sulted in their overthrow. Then, all the honest settlers in 
that region rallied under arms, and attacked the outlaws' 
fort, even using a piece of artillery. The place was taken 
by a fierce assault, one Regulator and three of the robbers 
being killed. The remaining outlaws were taken prisoners 



4o8 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

and tried for their crimes. Even later than this occurred 
a somewhat similar clash in Edgar County, in which another 
gang was summarily dealt with, its members severely whipped 
and driven from the county. He who afterwards became 
Governor French was a prominent member of the Regulators 
engaged in this affair. 

From here the outbreaks against lawlessness shifted to 
the more northern counties, where frontier conditions still 
invited to open outlawry. Well-organized bands were for 
many years operating unchecked north of the Illinois River, 
engaged in murder, robbery, horse-stealing, and the making 
and passing of counterfeit money. While few districts were 
entirely free from such criminals, the largest number of them 
rendezvoused in the counties of Ogle, Winnebago, Lee, and 
De Kalb. In Ogle they became so numerous and powerful 
that any conviction for crime was rendered impossible. 
Acquittal was certain to follow any attempt at indictment. 

At the Spring term of 1841 seven well-known outlaws 
were confined in the Ogle County jail. The judge and 
lawyers interested in their cases had assembled at the little 
village of Oregon, preparatory to the holding of court in the 
new court-house just completed. The jail stood near by- 
During the night a gang of sympathizers stole out of the 
darkness and set fire to the new building, hoping, in the 
excitement which would follow, to rescue the prisoners. 
This scheme failed, but the court-house was entirely con- 
sumed. Before the wave of popular indignation consequent 
upon this lawless act had subsided, the court convened, and 
three of the prisoners were tried, convicted, and sentenced 
to the penitentiary. In the trial one of their confederates 
had managed to get on the jury, and refused to agree on a 
verdict until the eleven others threatened to lynch him in 
the jury-room. The four other prisoners obtained changes 
of venue and never came to trial, as they all broke out of jail, 
and made their escape. 




OLD COURT-HOUSE AT PEORIA 



::m 




RESIDENCE OF COLONEL DAVENPORT ON ROCK ISLAND, 
WHERE HE WAS MURDERED 



BORDER OUTLAIVRT 409 

This affair thoroughly aroused the law-abiding residents of 
that region, and they resolved to take the law into their own 
hands. They were determined that delays, insecure jails, 
changes of venue, hung juries, and perjured evidence should 
no longer protect open criminals from just punishment. All 
over Ogle and Winnebago Counties they organized into 
companies of Regulators, and proceeded to work, whipping 
the more notorious rascals and ordering others to leave the 
country. Among those who were sentenced to banishment 
was a family named Driscoll, consisting of the old man and 
several sons. The father and some of the boys had been 
in the Ohio penitentiary, and were well-known thieves. 
The old man was a stoutly built, hardened, desperate man, 
while the boys had been brought up in the atmosphere of 
crime. This family determined not to be driven away, and, 
joining with others of a like determination, resolved to ter- 
rorize the Regulators by threatening death to the leading 
members of that organization. To prove such threats were 
not idle, they decided to begin by assassinating the Captain. 

For this purpose, one Sunday evening about dark, just 
after the family had returned from church, some of the 
Driscolls went to Captain Campbell's house. Pretending 
to be strangers inquiring their way, they called their victim 
out into his dooryard, and then deliberately shot him dead 
before the eyes of his wife and children. Before daybreak 
the news had spread over the whole surrounding country. 
From all quarters the people came pouring in toward the 
home of the murdered man, which was in White Rock 
Grove. Here they were still more influenced by viewing 
their dead leader and witnessing the sorrow of his wife and 
children, and the avengers spread out over the country in 
search after the murderers. 

The actual committers of the atrocious crime had made 
their escape, but there was no doubt that Driscoll and his 
sons were connected with it, and they were made prisoners 



410 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

and taken to Washington Grove for trial. Here the old man 
and one boy were convicted, the other acquitted. This trial 
occupied nearly an entire day, and was conducted in an 
orderly manner, in the presence of the whole assemblage of 
Regulators, some three hundred men, including magistrates 
and ministers of the gospel. Those condemned were sen- 
tenced to be shot within an hour. Given every opportunity 
for repentance, and with the consolations of religion adminis- 
tered to them, they were brought out for execution. Placed 
in a kneeling position, their eyes bandaged, the whole com- 
pany present fired upon them, so that none could be legal 
witnesses of the deed. Death was instantaneous, and from 
that hour the ascendency of criminals ceased in the northern 
counties. 

Nowhere in the State did a similar condition of affairs 
continue to exist, except in Massac County, which for years 
was not only overrun but actually controlled by vicious law- 
lessness. Courts, and nearly all the county and township 
officials, were at one time actual participants in outlawry, 
and the entire region was apparently a den of thieves. In 
1846 this carnival of crime was at its height, the condition 
such as to be now almost unbelievable. During the Sum- 
mer of that year a number of these desperadoes made a raid 
into Pope County, and entering the house of an aged resi- 
dent, robbed him of about two thousand five hundred 
dollars in gold. While committing this crime, one of the 
participants left behind a knife, which, having been made 
by a neighboring blacksmith, identified him with the act. 
Being arrested and tortured by the aroused neighbors, he 
confessed his crime, and gave the name of his associates. 
These also, being apprehended, were in turn tortured, and 
from them was learned a long list of confederates, scattered 
through various counties. To drive these out. Regulators 
were organized, but before they could act, the election for 
county officers occurred in August, 1846. 



BORDER OVTLAWRY 411 

Every criminal influence united in this election, and, as 
a result, men were elected who were popularly believed to 
be favorable to the disturbing element. Whether true or 
not, the two defeated candidates for sheriff and county clerk 
took advantage of this general feeling of distrust to rally 
about them all the different bands of Regulators in Pope and 
Massac Counties for an organized attack on all suspected of 
crime. Assisted by numerous recruits from Kentucky, 
these men proceeded to drive out and punish all persons 
suspected, and by torture force them to betray their com- 
panions. In this way long lists of names were obtained. 
The usual mode of torture was to take their victim down to the 
Ohio and hold him under water until Veady to confess. A few 
of these victims swore out warrants against their persecutors, 
but when the sheriff attempted arrests, he and the county 
clerk were both ordered to leave the country, under threats of 
severe punishment. 

By September, 1846, the whole county was practically 
in the hands of these Regulators, the officials being powerless. 
Having started out to achieve law and order, under unscru- 
pulous leaders this organization was becoming a lawless 
terror, threatening every one, whether rogue or honest man, 
who dared to protest against their proceedings. A reign 
of terror followed, which has scarcely a precedent in border 
history. The sheriff, county clerk, and several representa- 
tives in the legislature were driven out by force, and every 
corner of the region witnessed almost daily scenes of violence 
and outrage. About this time the circuit court was held 
for Massac, with Judge Scates on the bench. Several of 
the Regulators were indicted, and some were arrested by the 
sheriff and committed to jail. But the Regulators, assisted 
by large numbers from Kentucky, rose in open revolt against 
the law, and the sheriff was unable to raise a sufficient posse 
to carry on the duty of his office. The moderate men in the 
county, who probably outnumbered the others three to one, 



412 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

were so thoroughly terrorized as to refuse to take part, and 
the sheriff was compelled to use a set of fellows of ill repute. 

The Regulators took every advantage of his predicament, 
and in their full strength marched down to Metropolis City, 
the county seat. Here the sheriff and his party were com- 
pelled to surrender, the jail was opened, and those imprison- 
ed set free. The sheriff and many of his friends were driven 
out of the country, and several of his posse were murdered 
by being drowned in the Ohio. The entire region became 
divided into two warring factions, known as " Regulators " 
and " Flatheads "; all law was set at defiance, while violence 
was resorted to on every side. No man's life or property 
was safe in Massac or Pope County, the State government 
attempting little in the way of enforcing law. 

An illustration of the atrocious deeds committed is found 
in the case of one Mathis. He was an old man, and with the 
avowed purpose of compelling him to give certain evidence 
required against his neighbors, some twenty Regulators 
visited his house at night. He and his wife resisted, and the 
old woman, being strong and active, knocked down one or 
two of the party. In return she was shot through the thigh, 
besides being struck several blows on the head with a gun- 
barrel. Mathis was carried away, and probably murdered, 
as he was never again heard of. Warrants were sworn out 
for the arrest of these ruffians, and ten of them were taken. 
These were carried to Metropolis City, and placed under 
guard at the old Metropolis House, and at once a large force 
of Regulators gathered and marched down to the county 
seat for the purpose of liberating the prisoners. Some 
trouble and shooting occurred, one man was fatally stabbed, 
the " Flatheads " were overpowered, and a number of them, 
including the sheriff, turned over as prisoners to the Ken- 
tuckians. 

These were immediately taken away, all securely tied 
together, in the direction of Paducah. As they were never 



BORDER OUTLAWRY 413 

again heard of, it is presumed they were drowned in the 
waters of the Ohio. This state of terror reigned undis- 
turbed until it died out naturally. The legislature took 
some action, but nothing sufficiently drastic to accomplish 
results. No one was ever legally punished for any of the 
outrages committed, but the disturbances slowly died away, 
and law gradually resumed sway throughout all this region. 
For fifty years the upper Mississippi was haunted by 
bands of desperadoes, who found safe hiding-places on the 
seldom-visited islands or in well-hidden haunts along the 
shore. Travellers were attacked on both land and water, 
in the earlier days particular attention being paid to the 
Galena ore-boats, which were oftentimes compelled to run 
the gauntlet to St. Louis. Many of these bands cooperated 
with the Indians, who assisted them in their raids and hid 
them later in their villages. Nauvoo, both during and after 
the Mormon occupancy, contained many bad men, besides 
its nest of counterfeiters, who operated extensively in piracy 
along the upper river, and not infrequently added murder 
to their lesser crimes. Those desperadoes who murdered 
Colonel George Davenport in his lonely home on Rock 
Island were from Nauvoo, and the story of their desperate 
crime is stranger than any romance. They were convicted 
and hanged, their fate having much to do with the subse- 
quent clearing away of these rascals from the river. This, 
however, was not so much accomplished by the strong hand 
of the law, as by thicker settlement, and a better popular 
sentiment, which rendered crime unsafe. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE EARLY STEAMBOAT DAYS 

THE Western water-ways have witnessed many strange 
forms of transportation since the advent of the white 
man. The first explorers found the narrow Indian canoe, 
usually of Algonquin manufacture, sufficient for all purposes, 
but as time rolled on and new necessities arose, these primi- 
tive contrivances gave way to others scarcely less unique. 
Succeeding the canoe came in due season, at the demand of 
trade, the flat-boat, the pirogue, the Mackinaw-boat, the keel- 
boat, the barge, the horse-boat, and last, but not least, the 
"broad-horn," or produce-boat, which for many years was 
extensively used in floating heavy loads to the market of far- 
away New Orleans. 

This huge, ungainly craft worked very well so long as it 
could float downward with the current, but to ascend with 
it was almost an impossibility. Yet, occasionally, even this 
miracle was accomplished. Labor was cheap, a broad sail 
could often be used to advantage, and otherwise sweeps, 
poles, and tow-ropes were always at hand. Yet, as a rule, 
keel-boats and barges were found more generally available 
for the up-stream voyage, and even with such carriers it 
commonly required four months of most disheartening toil 
between New Orleans and the falls of the Ohio. In the 
fur trade the pirogue and the Mackinaw-boat were mostly 
used. These were constructed roughly at the far-off^ forts, 
loaded with peltries, manned by voyageurs, and sent down 
the river on the Spring floods. Few of them were ever 
taken back again, but disposed of in any way possible, or 

left to rot along the banks. 

414 



THE EARLY STEAMBOAT DATS 415 

The entire commerce of the Mississippi, until the coming 
of the steamboat, was confined to the shipment of lead ore, 
and the bringing in of the small amount of provisions required 
by the miners. This was largely done by means of keel- 
boats of about one hundred tons capacity. Barges were also 
used for the down-stream trip. The first steamboat to 
penetrate into these upper waters, or above the Des Moines 
Rapids, is believed to have been the " Virginia," which arrived 
at Galena in 1823, and the same year reached Fort Snelling ; 
but the keel-boats and barges continued the more popular 
for many years later. The old-time barge was a cumber- 
some, slow, and dangerous contrivance. These boats were 
from twenty-five to one hundred feet long, with a breadth 
of beam of from fifteen to twenty feet, and a carrying capac- 
ity of from six to one hundred tons. The receptacle for the 
freight was a large covered coffer, called a " cargo-box," 
which occupied a considerable portion of the bulk. Near 
the stern was a small apartment, six or eight feet long, whert 
the captain or owner was quartered at night. On the ele- 
vated roof of this cabin the steersman stood to guide the 
unwieldy craft. It usually boasted of two masts, the main 
reliance being a large square sail set well forward, capable 
of relieving the men greatly when the wind was right. About 
fifty men were usually necessary as a crew, and their labors 
on a long voyage were varied — sometimes they pulled at 
the heavy oars, or towed the boat from the shore. Occasion- 
ally they were obliged to " warp " their slow way along, and 
then again to take a spell at " poling "; in fact, it was pole 
and warp, and tow and row for months at a time to fetch a 
cargo from the Gulf to St. Louis. 

We are reliably informed that, previous to the coming 
of the steamboats to these waters, say in 18 17, the entire 
commerce from New Orleans to the upper country was 
carried in about twenty such barges, averaging one hundred 
tons each, and making but a single trip each year. The 



41 6 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

first appearance of the keel-boat, and possibly also of the 
barge, on the Mississippi, above the Ohio, of which there is 
any official record, was in 1751, when a fleet of such boats, 
under command of Bossu, a captain of French marines, 
ascended as far as Fort Chartres. One of these was left 
helpless on a sand-bar, another struck a snag and sank, 
while the general hardship of the voyage was indignantly 
commented upon. Manuel White, in describing a trip he 
made on such a boat from Louisville to New Orleans 
in 1801, which required sixty days, says: "There was 
not to be seen on the banks of the Ohio, from the foot of the 
falls to the mouth, but a small settlement called Red Banks, 
another called Yellow Banks, Fort Massac, and a cabin 
below Cave-in-Rock." 

The first steamboat to navigate the Western waters and 
along the Illinois shore was named the " New Orleans." 
She left Pittsburg in September, 181 1, on her venturesome 
voyage. This vessel was one hundred and sixteen feet in 
length, twenty feet beam, and four hundred tons burden. 
The engine possessed a thirty-four-inch cylinder, with boiler 
in proportion, and the total cost approximated thirty-eight 
thousand dollars. There were two cabins, one aft for ladies 
and a larger one forward for men. The ladies' cabin con- 
tained four berths, and on this initial trip was occupied by 
the owner, Mr. Roosevelt, and his wife, who were the only 
passengers. The crew consisted of the captain, an engineer 
named Baker, Andrew Sack the pilot, six hands, two female 
servants, a man waiter, a cook, and a dog named " Tiger.'* 
The people of Pittsburg turned out en masse to bid them 
good-bye, and they received similar ovations at Cincinnati 
and Louisville. In many ways it proved an adventurous 
voyage; the passage of the falls of the Ohio was made with 
difficulty and some peril; the great comet of that year 
blazed in the sky overhead, and they felt the eflPect of the 
earthquake which wrought such damage at New Madrid, 



THE EARLY STEAMBOAT DATS 417 

and barely escaped being caught in its grasp. The terrors 
of fire also threatened them on one occasion, and great diffi- 
culty was experienced from shoals, snags, and sawyers. To 
add romance to the other adventures of the trip, the captain 
fell in love with Mrs. Roosevelt's maid, and prosecuted his 
suit so successfully that a marriage was duly celebrated at 
Natchez. 

It is interesting to note the checkered careers of those 
first frail steamboats — all more or less experiments — that 
navigated the waters of the Ohio and the Mississippi. The 
second boat built was the " Comet," of twenty-five tons. 
She made a voyage to Louisville in 18 13, and reached New 
Orleans the following Spring. After two trips she was sold, and 
her engines utilized to drive a cotton-gin. The " Vesuvius '* 
was the third boat, and registered three hundred and forty 
tons. Under command of Frank Ogden, she started for 
New Orleans in June, 18 14, but grounded on a bar just be- 
low the mouth of the Ohio, where she rested until December, 
when the river rose and floated her off. A very similar 
experience occurred to her at New Orleans. Finally taking 
fire, she burned to the water's edge. The " Enterprise " 
was the fourth boat, of forty-five tons burden. Henry 
M. Sheve was her commander, and she was used chiefly in 
transporting troops and munitions of war. She was con- 
sidered unusually fast for those days, having a record of six 
hundred and twenty-four miles in six and a half days, which 
in these later times awakens a smile. She was wrecked at 
Shippingport in 1815. The " iEtna " was the fifth boat, 
and under command of Captain Robinson de Hart, made 
six trips between Louisville and New Orleans. Her end 
is unknown. 

The sixth boat, the " Zebulon M. Pike," has a history of 
greater interest, as she was the first to ascend the Mississippi 
above the mouth of the Ohio, and to reach St. Louis. The 
" Pike " was built at Henderson, Kentucky, in 18 15, and per- 



41 8 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

formed a maiden trip to Louisville, two hundred and fifty 
miles, in sixty-seven hours, averaging three and one-fourth 
miles per hour against the current. " The hull," says a 
writer of the day, " was built on the model of a barge, and 
the cabin built on the lower deck inside of the running- 
boards." The vessel was propelled by a low-pressure engine 
with a walking-beam, there being but one smoke-stack, and 
no houses over the wheels. In a rapid current, the crew 
were compelled to aid progress by the use of main strength. 
They diligently operated poles and running-boards the 
same as if they were on a barge. Captain Jacob Read took 
the '* Pike " to St. Louis, running his boat only during day- 
light, and thus consumed six weeks in making the trip be- 
tween Louisville and St. Louis. He tied up at the foot of 
Market Street, August 2, 1817. The scattered inhabitants 
along the Illinois shore gazed in wonder as this strange 
apparition went chugging noisily past their little settlements. 
At St. Louis all the citizens gathered on the bank to welcome 
their novel visitor. Among them, tradition says, was a 
group of Indians. As the boat approached, the glare from 
the furnace and the volume of murky smoke filled the un- 
tutored savages with sudden dismay. They fled to the high 
ground in the rear of the village, and no assurances of safety 
could induce them to approach the snorting monster again. 
The " Pike " made several trips over this strip of river, but 
was finally snagged in March, 18 18, in the Red River. 

The " Dispatch, " the " Buffalo, " and the " James 
Monroe " followed, but it remained for the tenth boat to 
demonstrate beyond further question that steamboating 
was destined to be a success on Western water-ways. This 
was the " Washington," four hundred tons, and a two-decker, 
the first to carry her boilers on the upper deck. Under com- 
mand of Captain Shreve, she left Shippingport, and made 
the round trip to New Orleans in the unprecedented time 
of forty-five days. The thirty-fifth boat built was the *' Gen- 



THE EARLY STEAMBOAT DAYS 419 

eral Pike," and her title to fame rests in the fact that she was 
the first used in the West exclusively for passengers. Her 
cabin was forty feet in length and twenty-five in breadth. 
At one end were six staterooms, and at the other end eight. 
Between was a saloon capable of accommodating one hun- 
dred passengers. 

The time required in travelling by these early boats seems 
something extremely tedious to those of us living in the 
present age of rapid transit, but in that day it was considered 
remarkable, and many thought it would never be surpassed. 
In 1 8 15, it required twenty-five days, two hours, and forty 
minutes, by the fastest steamers, to make the trip from New 
Orleans to Louisville, a distance of 1,486 miles. Very grad- 
ually this was impro/ed upon. In 1828, the " Tecumseh " 
cut it down to eight days, four hours, and finally in 1853, 
the " Eclipse " established her record as the swiftest boat 
afloat, by covering the distance in four days, nine hours, and 
thirty minutes. In 1823 there were public rejoicings at 
Louisville over a steamer arriving there in fifteen days and 
six hours from New Orleans, and the captain, answering a 
toast, gravely announced that he really believed the voyage 
might be made in six hours less. This same reduction 
in time is noticeable on all the rivers. From New Orleans 
to Cairo, the " J. M. White," doing ordinary business along 
the way, made the 1,024 miles in three days, six hours, and 
forty-four minutes. From Louisville to St. Louis the run 
was made in 1855 by the " Southerner " in forty-three hours, 
a notable improvement over the six weeks required in 181 7. 
On the upper river, as early as 1859, the " Louisiana " ran 
from St. Louis to Keokuk in sixteen hours and twenty 
minutes ; ten years later, the " Hawkeye State " is said to 
have reached St. Paul in two days and twenty hours, and the 
" Cataract " attained La Salle, on the Illinois River, from 
St. Louis in twenty-three hours, forty-five minutes. 

These early records of increased steamboat efficiency 



420 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

and speed were attained in the course of regular business 
done at the various landings. At one time, however, rivalry 
between the different lines became very fierce, and resulted 
in numerous hard-fought races for supremacy. In such 
cases, boats were often stripped for the contest, and pressed 
to the utmost by enthusiastic crews, coaled from barges 
while going at full speed, and few if any stops made until 
the goal was reached. The most famous races in water- 
ways bordering Illinois were those between the " Baltic " 
and the " Diana " in 1854; and that tremendous struggle 
of 1,218 miles between the "Natchez" and the "Robert 
E. Lee " in 1870. This last was probably the greatest steam- 
boat race ever run in the world. The " Baltic " and the 
" Diana," between whose crews considerable rivalry ex- 
isted, chanced to leave New Orleans on the same day, bound 
for Louisville, the " Baltic " being slightly in the lead. 
Neither boat had ever exhibited any great speed, and while 
the result was what might be termed a slow race, it was an 
extraordinarily long one, hotly contested to the end, and be- 
came intensely exciting to the participants. During all of 
the 1,486 miles covered, there was not an hour of the time 
when the two boats were out of sight or hearing of each 
other. An artist chanced to be on board the " Baltic " at 
the time, and he immortalized the event by transferring to 
canvas, in oil, a night scene, in which were graphically de- 
picted the two imposing steamers in the foreground. The 
" Baltic " won the race, but the time does not seem to have 
been recorded. 

The " Natchez-Lee " race attracted international atten- 
tion, and immense sums of money were wagered on the re- 
sult. There had long been great rivalry between the boats 
and their commanders, T. P. Leathers of the " Natchez " 
and John W. Cannon of the " Lee." In June, 1870, the 
former made the fastest time on record between New Orleans 
to St. Louis, three days, twenty-one hours, and fifty-eight 



THE EARLY STEAMBOAT DATS 421 

minutes. When Captain Cannon heard this, he deter- 
mined to beat it if possible. He stripped the " Lee " for 
the race, removing all parts of her upper works likely to 
catch the wind, took down all the rigging that could be dis- 
pensed with, and engaged another steamer to proceed up 
the river, one hundred miles in advance, to supply her with 
coal in midstream. All business was refused for way- 
landings, and no passengers were received. Meanwhile 
the " Natchez " received a few tons of freight, accepted 
some passengers, and advertised to leave for St. Louis on 
June 30, During the afternoon of that day the " Lee " 
backed out from the levee, and five minutes later the ** Nat- 
chez " followed her. The whole country was interested 
in the race, it having been M^dely advertised by the press, 
and the details of its progress being reported by telegraph. 
Crowds gathered at the various cities along the way, and 
even at out-of-the-way points people stood straining 
their eyes to catch sight of the flying racers. Everything 
possible to increase speed was resorted to, and thus night 
and day the two contestants sped up the river in a struggle 
for mastery. But at Cairo the race was virtually ended, 
although the " Lee " continued to St. Louis at top speed, arriv- 
ing there in three days, eighteen hours, and fourteen minutes 
from the time of her leaving New Orleans, thus beating by 
thirty-three minutes the previous record of the " Natchez. " 
The latter steamer became enveloped in a fog above Cairo, 
and was delayed for six hours. The conclusion of the race 
resulted in much controversy, but it was generally conceded 
that the "Lee" had won fairly. 

From the very beginning of steamboat navigation on 
the Western rivers, accidents have been numerous and often 
fatal. Comparatively few, however, of those which may 
be ranked among great disasters have occurred in Illinois 
waters. The earliest of these was the loss of the steamer 
** Mechanic " in 1825, while on the way from Nashville to 



422 



HIS TOR IC IL L INOIS 



Marietta, Ohio, having on board, at the time, General La 
Fayette, General Carroll and stafF, Governor Coles of Illinois, 
and several others of prominence. About midnight. May 6, 
while ascending the Ohio, one hundred and twenty-five 
miles below Louisville, and close to the mouth of Deer 
Creek, the boat struck a snag in midstream, and immedi- 
ately began to settle. The night was very dark, and much 
confusion ensued, but General La Fayette was hurried on 
deck, and assisted over the rail, where a yawl waited to con- 
vey him ashore. In the excitement he fell overboard, and 
being then far advanced in years, narrowly escaped drowning 
before help arrived. He lost eight thousand dollars in money, 
besides much personal property. Captain Hall, devoting 
all his attention to his distinguished guests, forgot his own 
interests, and lost a desk containing nearly two thousand 
dollars. 

A most distressing accident, by which sixteen persons 
were instantly killed and several others badly scalded, took 
place on the Mississippi, while the boat " Dubuque " was 
on her voyage from St. Louis to Galena. The locality 
of the disaster was off Muscatine Bar, eight miles below 
Burlington. The " Dubuque " was running under a moderate 
pressure of steam at the time, when the flue of the larboard 
boiler, probably on account of some defect in the material 
or workmanship, collapsed, throwing a torrent of scalding 
water over the deck. The pilot immediately steered for the 
shore and effected a landing. 

When the consternation and dismay occasioned by the 
explosion had in some measure subsided, Captain Smoker, 
the commander of the " Dubuque," and such of his crew 
as were not disabled by the accident, made their way with 
considerable difficulty through the ruins to the after part of 
the boiler-deck, when it was found that the whole of the 
freight and every other article which had been there depos- 
ited were cleared off and blown far away into the water. 



THE EARLY STEAMBOAT DATS 423 

The unfortunate deck passengers, together with the cooks 
and several of the crew, were severely scalded either by the 
hot water or the escaping steam. Many of the injured, in 
their agony, fled to the shore. It was several hours before 
any of them died ; nor could medical relief be obtained 
until a boat, which had been despatched from Bloomington, 
returned with several physicians who resided at that place. 
At ten o'clock that night, eight hours after the explosion, 
the steamboat " Adventure," Captain Van Houten, came up 
with the wreck and took it in tow as far as Bloomington. 

On the third of January, 1844, the entire city of St. Louis 
was thrown into consternation by the news that the steam- 
boat " Shepherdess " had been wrecked in Cahokia Bend, 
only three miles from the centre of the city, and many lives 
lost. The following is Captain Gould's account of this 
disaster: 

" The ' Shepherdess,' while ascending the Mississippi River on 
her way from Cincinnati to St. Louis, and at eleven o'clock in a 
dark and stormy night, struck a snag just above the mouth of 
Cahokia Creek. The concussion was very severe, and it is 
believed that several planks must have been torn from the bottom 
of the boat. According to the report of the officers, most of those 
who were in the gentlemen's cabin had retired to their berths ; four 
or five gentlemen, however, were sitting up by the stove, as it was 
cold Winter weather. The ladies were generally undressed for 
the night. 

" In less than two minutes after the boat struck, the water rose 
to the lower deck, where most of the passengers in that part of the 
boat were asleep. The captain, who was on duty, ran to the cabin 
occupied by the ladies, and assured them that there was no danger ; 
he then returned to the forecastle, and is supposed to have been 
washed overboard, as nothing was ever seen or heard of him after- 
wards. As soon as the shock was felt on board, one of the pilots 
attempted to descend into the hold for the purpose of examining 
the leak, but he had scarcely entered when the rush of water drove 
him back. 



424 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

" About this time shrieks and exclamations of affright and dis- 
tress arose from the deck below, and several ladies, who hastened 
to the stern railing, reported that they saw a number of persons 
struggling in the river. Certain it is that the water rushed in with 
tremendous rapiditv, and before three minutes had elapsed it had 
risen to the floor of the upper cabin. Some of those persons who 
were on deck saved themselves by getting into the yawl, which was 
cut loose and rowed to the shore with a broom. The water rose 
so rapidly that it soon became necessary for all to seek safety on 
the hurricane-deck. This position was not attained without great 
difficulty, for the bow had sunk so deep in the water that the only 
access was via the stern. However, it is believed that all the 
people from the cabin succeeded in reaching the hurricane roof. 
In the meanwhile the boat was drifting down the stream, and a few 
hundred yards below, she struck another snag which rose above the 
surface. This threw the steamer nearly on her beam ends on the 
larboard side. Drifting from this snag, she again lurched to star- 
board. At each lurch several persons were washed off; some of 
them reached the shore, but many were drowned. A short distance 
below, just above the first shot-tower, the hull struck a bluff bank, 
which again careened the boat nearly on her side. Here the hull 
and cabin parted ; the former sunk and lodged on a bar above Caron- 
delet, while the cabin floated down to the point of the bar below 
that place, where it lodged and became stationary. 

" The steamer ' Henry Bry ' was lying at the shot-tower 
above Carondelet, and as the cabin passed, the captain of that 
vessel, being aroused by the cries of the passengers, took his yawl 
to their rescue. This little boat could only take off a few at a 
time, but by the strenuous exertions of the captain of the ' Bry,' 
many were saved. This humane gentleman almost sacrificed him- 
self in the work of benevolence, and did not desist until he was 
covered with a mass of ice, and benumbed to that degree that 
further effort was impossible. About three o'clock the ferry-boat 
' Icelander ' came down, and took off all who remained in the 
detached cabin." 

In 1849, at a time when cholera was raging in St. Louis, 
thousands being struck down by the dread scourge, there 



THE EARLY STEAMBOAT DAYS 425 

occurred a fire on the river, which added vastly to the pre- 
vaiHng horror. The following description is from Scharf's 
"Sketch Book": 

" While the disease was raging at its fiercest, the city was 
doomed to another horror — the city was burnt — fifteen squares 
were laid in ashes. The fire commenced on the steamer ' White 
Cloud,' lying between Washington and Cherry Streets. The wind 
was blowing fiercely on shore, which fact contributed materially to 
the extent of the marine disaster, and although the fines of all the 
boats were cut and hauled in, and they shoved out into the current, 
the burning boat seemed to outstrip them all, with the speed with 
which she floated down the river ; and in perhaps thirty minutes 
after the fire broke out, twenty-three steamboats had been aban- 
doned to the prey of the flames, and a half a million dollars' worth 
of property had been destroyed. So devastating a fire had never 
before been known in the United States. 

" Fifteen blocks of houses were burned or seriously damaged, 
causing the loss of ten million dollars. The fire was finally ex- 
tinguished by blowing up several houses with powder, but in doing 
that, several lives were lost, although great care was taken to give 
timely warning. The list of suff'erers made eight or ten columns 
in ' The Missouri Republican.' " 

The story of the upper river navigation can be given 
only briefly, as it has had few historians, and left little detail 
on record. Here, during a large portion of the year, navi- 
gation is difficult and uncertain, being obstructed by rapids 
and low water ; nor did the earlier erected bridges detract 
from the danger. The first bridge across the Mississippi was 
at Rock Island. Gould says: 

" It was a drawbridge, and built without any legal authority, 
simply by a charter from the State of Illinois. It was commenced 
in 1853, ^"^ ^^^ ^^ most dangerous obstruction to navigation 
ever constructed, on account of its being located over a chain of 
rocks, producing boils and cross currents which were difficult to 
keep a boat in. Many lives were lost in passing through the draw, 
and under the bridge, and many rafts were broken up. One fine 



426 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

steamboat, the ' Effa Afton,' was sunk and a large number of lives 
lost. An effort was made by the river interests to have the bridge 
removed as an illegal structure and dangerous to navigation. But 
such was the persistency of the proprietors, they defeated every 
effort in the several courts to which it was carried, and after fight- 
ing the bridge for more than ten years with the money and influence 
of the Merchants Exchange, of St. Louis, as well as that of many 
citizens along the river, and the best legal talent that could be em- 
ployed, the bridge remained until removed by Act of Congress in 
1872, when by a sort of compromise the Government built another 
bridge higher up the river, at the head of the Island, and removed 
the old one." 

The steamboat lines operating north of St. Louis have 
been numerous, but few have proven successful financially. 
The " Di Vernon " was the first boat of the St. Louis and 
Keokuk Packet Company, and made her initial trip in 1842. 
A few years later, an opposition line put into commission 
three boats, the " Swallow," the " Anthony Wayne," and 
the " Edward Bates." The intense competition resulting 
proved the ruin of both. Others followed rapidly, covering 
the waters of the entire system from St. Louis to St. Paul ; 
but perhaps the more interesting history of river navigation 
was previous to this organization of companies, those earlier 
days when steamboating was purely an adventure. A well- 
known river writer has said: 

" All early settlers, as well as the old boatmen, will remember 
the '■ Rosalie,' Captain Mike Littleton ; the ' Quincy,' Captain 
Cameron ; the ' Boreas,' Captain Fitheon ; the ' Knickbocker,' 
Captain Gould, and many others long since forgotten. 

" There were also many boats running above the rapids from 
St. Louis, among which will be remembered the 'Warrior,' Cap- 
tain Throckmorton -, the ' Winnebago,' Captain Atchison ; the 
' Joe Daviess,' Captain Scribe Harris ; the ' Pizarro,' Captain 
Smith Harris ; the ' Rolla,' Captain Reynolds ; the ' Gypsy,' 
Captain Gray; the 'St. Croix,' Captain Bersie; the 'Illinois,' 
Captain McCalister ; the ' Rapids,' Captain Cole ; the ' Fulton,' 



THE EARLY STEAMBOAT DATS 427 

Captain Orrin Smith ; the * Brazil,' the * Irene,' the ' lone,* the 
* Time and Tide,' the ' Falcon,' the * St. Peter,' the ' Montauk,' 
and many others." 

Steamboat navigation on the Illinois River was some- 
what late in opening, no regular line being in operation 
previous to 1835. Among boats there previous to this date 
may be mentioned the " Criterion " in 1828 ; the " Orion " 
and the " Express " in 1832 ; the " Miner " in 1833 ; the 
" Lady Jackson," the " Wisconsin," the " Cold Water," 
the "Utility," the "American," the "Springfield," the 
" Champion," in 1834 ; the " Banner," the " Winnebago," 
the " Adventure," the " Illinois," in 1835. 

In ScharPs " History of St. Louis " is this account of 
early Illinois River steamboats: 

" The steamboat ' Ottawa ' was the first boat built on the Illi- 
nois. She was constructed in part at Ottawa, added to at Peru, 
and finished at St. Louis. She was of the very lightest draught, 
seventeen inches, and had a powerful engine ; the design being to 
take two keels in tow in low water, the steamer herself being light, 
so that whenever there was seventeen inches of water on the bars 
she would be able to reach St. Louis with one hundred tons of 
freight weekly. Her length was one hundred feet, breadth twenty 
feet, and the cabin laid off entirely in staterooms. The owners 
resided in Ottawa. There is no date by which to determine the 
appearance of this specimen of marine architecture. It must, 
however, have been pretty early, as none of the present generation 
of ' old boatmen ' know anything of the * towboat ' ' Ottawa.' " 

"As early as 1844," says Gould, "Captain Samuel Rider, one 
of the most mechanical and inventive boatmen ever on the Illinois 
River, built at Griggsville landing, a sort of nondescript boat he 
called ' Olitippa,' which was propelled by horses upon an endless 
chain. The boat had no cabin or cargo-box, and the hold was too 
shallow to stow freight in. She was designed expressly to carry 
freight in low water, which, of course, had to be stowed on the 
main deck, as she had no other ; and the cook, the officers, and the 
men occupied the same location. The clerk's office was carried 



428 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

in the captain's hat, and as there were but few ladies travelling on 
the Illinois at that early day, a chambermaid was dispensed with. 
Later on, when accidents on the rivers were more frequent from 
fires and bursting of boilers, the ' Olitippa ' would doubtless have 
become very popular, as but little apprehension could have been 
felt from either cause on her. She proved to be what she was 
designed for, a light-draught boat (only ten inches) for the Illinois 
River. But when she drifted out of her home element into the 
strong currents of the Mississippi, she was at sea without a rudder, 
or without power to avoid snags or ice-shores." 

It is impossible to dismiss this subject without some ref- 
erence to the river floods which from time to time have 
swept the Mississippi Valley. The first authentic account 
of the American Bottom being submerged is that of the flood 
in 1724. A document is to be seen in the archives of Kaskas- 
kia, which consists of a petition to the crown of France in 
1725, for a grant of land in which the damage sustained 
the year before is mentioned. The villagers were driven to 
the bluff's on the opposite side of the Kaskaskia River. 
Their gardens and crops were destroyed, and their buildings 
and property much injured. We have no evidence of its 
exact height, but the whole American Bottom was sub- 
merged. This was probably in June. 

In 1772, Fort Chartres was destroyed by a sudden rise 
of waters, but from 1785 to 181 1 there were no destructive 
floods, although an occasional overflow proved sufficient 
to fill the lake and low grounds on the American Bottom. 
This was in the year preceding the great " shakes," as the 
earthquakes were called. The river began rising at St. 
St. Louis early in May, and by the fifteenth it had spread 
over a large portion of the American Bottom, but by the 
first of June it was out of its banks only in low places. On 
the sixth it again began to rise, and continued to increase in 
volume until the fourteenth, when it came to a stand ; the 
greater part of the bottom, Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Prairie 



THE EARLY STEAMBOAT DAYS 429 

du Pont, Cautine, and nearly all the settlements along the 
low lands were under water, and the inhabitants had fled to 
the high bluffs. The " common fields" at St. Genevieve 
were entirely submerged ; the corn was nearly covered. 

A story is still told by the old inhabitants of the village, 
that the panic-stricken people appealed to Father Maxwell, 
the village priest, to " pray away the water." It is said he 
gave no encouragement at first, until the water came to a 
stand. Then he proposed to the people to drive off the 
water by saying masses. This they did, and as the water 
fell rapidly, the ground was soon dry, and a fine crop of 
corn was raised, which was divided with the priest in con- 
formity to the agreement for saying the masses. 

In 1826, and at irregular times since, the water has risen 
very high and wrought much danger, not only to settlers 
along the Illinois shore, but to steamboats navigating the 
rivers. 



CHAPTER XXX 
THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD 

THE line of special demarcation between the days of the 
frontier and modern conditions is very easily traceable 
in Illinois history. The old and the new stand distinct and 
apart, divided by that wizard, steam, whose long lines of 
gleaming rails now gridiron the State. While various other 
causes undoubtedly contributed toward this same result, 
and every influence of growth and prosperity tended toward 
permanent advancement, yet it was the coming of the rail- 
way which immediately achieved this purpose. Under the 
magic of its extension, barter became commerce, and petty 
trade between neighbors grew into a world-wide exchange 
of commodities; population came in fast-increasing throngs, 
no longer deterred by the hardships of wilderness travel. 
These brought with them wealth, refinement, the enterprise 
of financial exploitation ; isolated settlements grew into 
pleasant towns, while many of these, favored by situation 
or the consolidation of wealth, pressed swiftly forward into 
great and important cities. On all sides, land long lying 
vacant found occupants, venturesome souls pressing out 
into the wide prairie stretches, encouraged to believe that 
within a few years, at most, the favoring railway would ex- 
tend its iron bands as a reward for their patient toil. The 
East became linked to the West, and an impetus was thus 
given to every form of commercial life which made of Illinois 
one of the great States of the Union ; her struggling child- 
hood had passed away forever, her years of fair woman- 
hood begun. 

It is not difficult to trace the winding path leading up 

430 



THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD 431 

to this consummation of all that the hardy pioneers dreamed 
of, but it is sometimes hard to conceive the reasons why cer- 
tain steps were taken along the devious course of legislation 
leading thereto, — the mistakes, the failures, the wild visionary 
schemes fluttering on every side, the fierce opposition offered 
to what we now know to have been wise, the party strife that 
retarded, the jealousy of cities and of political leaders con- 
tinually blocking the way. We can only remember that these 
walked in darkness, whereas we stand in light, and remain 
charitable alike to the mistakes made and the ill judgment 
shown. The end was inevitable, and in spite of opposition 
won slowly to the final betterment of the State. 

We will not attempt here to trace this movement in great 
detail, but content ourselves with making its more salient and 
picturesque steps reasonably clear, and in this will follow 
largely the facts as stated by Davidson and Stuve. In 1826 
the first railroad in the United States, connecting Albany 
and Schenectady in New York, was built. Its successful 
operation instantly fired the imagination of the ambitious 
men of that period. It promised to work a sudden revolu- 
tion in all commercial affairs, and there early began an era 
of road-building which is even yet far from having reached 
its limit. Far-seeing men in Illinois at once perceived its 
value for the development of the resources of the State, and 
took steps toward this attainment. The State, at the time, 
was peculiarly isolated, and necessarily provincial, her only 
communication with the East being by means of river or 
lake, or through a long, wearisome journey by wagon over- 
land. The scattered settlements within her borders, some 
few already budding into small but ambitious cities, were 
connected by rudely constructed earth roads, over which 
rolled the occasional stage-coach, or the heavily laden wagon. 
Travelling was mostly on horseback. Under these condi- 
tions, trade must remain extremely limited, commerce in 
its wider meaning unknown, and development of resources 



432 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

extremely slow. The railroad promised immediate relief 
for all these existing evils, and even dull minds felt the call 
for united action. 

As early as 1836, the matter was brought formally be- 
fore the legislature for consideration, during the administra- 
tion of Governor Duncan. As is apt to be the case in times 
of popular enthusiasm, so much was undertaken, consider- 
ing the then impoverished condition of the treasury and the 
sparseness of population, and consequent meagreness of 
revenue, that the entire project naturally died from lack 
of nourishment. It is interesting to read the numerous 
theories advanced at that period, as to the probable cost of 
railway construction, and the wonderful benefits which 
would immediately accrue to the people and to the State 
treasury. Each legislator had apparently discovered an 
Aladdin's lamp with which he proposed to illumine the sur- 
rounding regions. The railroads laid out at this time — 
and for the construction of w^hich money was actually voted 
in the form of bonds, with commissioners appointed to bor- 
row on the credit of the State — were known as the Central 
Railroad, outlined to extend from Cairo to the Illinois and 
Michigan Canal ; railroads from Alton to Mount Carmel 
(called Southern Cross Road), and Alton to Shawneetowri ; 
the Northern Cross Road from Quincy to the Indiana State 
line (the modern Toledo, Wabash, and Western Railroad), 
together with various branches to nearly every important 
town in the State; while two hundred thousand dollars was 
graciously voted as an olive branch to those few counties 
whose claims to recognition in railroad-building might have 
been overlooked. Altogether, the then magnificent sum of 
^5,850,000 was thus appropriated for railroad-building, 
while an equally generous amount was set aside for river 
and other improvements, made necessary by such railway 
construction. But even this amount was soon discovered 
to be not half large enough to carry out the work as pro- 





TWO FAMILIAR SCENES OF PIONEER DAYS 

THE MAIL-COACH AND THE PRAIRIE-SCHOONER 



THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD 433 

posed. Illinois then had a census population of 271,727; 
the taxable wealth of the State three years later was only 
1^58,889,525, and yet her legislators deliberately assumed, 
on her behalf, an expenditure of ;^20,ooo,ooo ! 

However, this " grand system " fell by its own weight, 
and, with the exception of a part of the Northern Cross 
Railroad, the work, which was begun simultaneously in 
various portions of the State, came to no more than a few 
excavations and embankments, some of which still remain 
as curiosities in their neighborhoods. The portion of the 
Northern Cross Road, leading from Meredosia to Spring- 
field, was actually completed at a cost to the State of one mil- 
lion dollars; but its income proved insufficient to keep it in 
repair, and it was subsequently sold for one hundred thou- 
sand dollars in State indebtedness. Of this road, some eight 
miles of track was laid in 1838, running from Meredosia 
east, the first rail being laid May 9. The first locomotive 
that ever turned a wheel in the great valley of the Mississippi, 
marking the dawn of a new era, was operated over this track, 
November 8, 1838. George W. Plant, later a successful 
merchant of St. Louis, officiated as engineer. The locomo- 
tive ran the distance of eight miles and back, carrying, as 
passengers. Governor Duncan, Murray McConnel, one of 
the public commissioners, two of the contractors, and the 
Chief Engineer of the road, George P. Plant. This occurred 
only twelve years later than the first railroad in the United 
States was operated; but now there followed a necessary 
pause. For the next twelve years nothing was accomplished, 
and for the best of reasons, — money was lacking, and even 
the State herself trembled on the brink of repudiation. 
Everything seemed to fall upon her at once, the collapse of 
the internal improvement system, the suspension of banks, 
and a depreciated currency, until the total State debt attained 
to the vast amount of ;^I4,666,562.42. But in 1850 the 
Chicago and Galena road was completed by private capital 



434 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

as far as Elgin, and from that date there distinctly dawned 
upon the State the great railroad era which has since cov- 
ered Illinois with a complicated network of these iron arteries 
of commerce, affording rapid and easy communication with 
almost every county. 

During this period the impoverished condition of the 
State treasury and the sparseness of population, and conse- 
quent lack of taxable property, were not altogether respon- 
sible for the slowness of railroad development and exploita- 
tion. It resulted rather from what has since been known 
as " State policy," arising from the narrow dullness of cer- 
tain politicians, and originating in the commercial rivalry 
of several ambitious Illinois towns, of which Alton was 
the most conspicuous. Outside capital and enterprise were 
eager enough to invade the Illinois field, yet, almost without 
exception, the plans of such projected railroads led directly 
across the State, with their eastern termini in Indiana, at 
either Vincennes or Terre Haute, and reaching westward 
to St. Louis, in Missouri. This did not look right to the 
average Illinoisan of that region, as such a condition must 
inevitably result in the building up of important cities just 
beyond the State limits, to the deterioration of local points. 
Moreover, a wider argument was urged, that by this scheme 
Illinois' commerce would be largely diverted to defray the 
expenses of foreign governments, to her own manifest detri- 
ment. Practically every town in central and southern 
Illinois united in the determination to defeat such charters. 
Vast mass-meetings were held, especially at Salem and 
Hillsboro, in the Summer and Fall of 1849, to discuss the 
situation. At the latter, it is said, twelve thousand people 
were present; the principles of " State policy " were en- 
thusiastically endorsed, and every possible precaution taken 
to prevent foreign railroad companies from invading the 
sacred soil of the State — unless they would agree to make 
a terminus on Illinois territory. 



THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD 435 

This short-sighted, and indeed bhnd, policy no doubt 
considerably retarded the development of Illinois, and cer- 
tainly called down upon her legislators the most sarcastic 
comments of other States, whose newspapers characterized 
such a course as selfish, narrow, and contemptible, a re- 
enacting of the fable of the dog in the manger. But the Alton 
influence continued to control the politicians and a majority 
of the people until the administration of Governor French, 
when the more healthy condition of the State treasury put a 
somewhat different aspect on internal affairs. At the com- 
mencement of Governor Ford's administration in 1842, it 
was officially announced that there was not money enough 
in the State treasury to pay postage on a letter. Everything 
was almost at a standstill in point of revenue ; there were 
whole counties containing scarcely more than a log cabin 
within their boundaries, and only six small cities (really no 
more than towns) in the State, — Chicago, Alton, Spring- 
field, Quincy, Galena, and Nauvoo. The State had bor- 
rowed itself out of all credit, and there was not good money 
enough in the hands of all the people to pay the interest of 
the debt for a single year. But Illinois proved an infant 
Hercules slumbering in the cradle, and under the fostering 
care of Governors Ford and French, began to exhibit its 
true strength. 

During this period a new loan was floated, amounting to 
;^ 1, 600,000, that was used to complete the Illinois and Michi- 
gan Canal, which now began to yield an annual revenue in 
tolls; canal lands worth half a million dollars were sold far 
above the appraisement; three-fifths of the one-and-a-half- 
mill tax authorized in 1845 now paid twelve dollars out of 
every sixty dollars of annually accruing interest ; and if the 
two-mill tax, authorized by the new constitution, could have 
been diverted in that way, the whole annual interest on the 
internal improvement debt proper could have been paid. 
Auditor's warrants were worth ninety-five cents on the dollar, 



436 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

such was the improved condition brought about by rigid 
economy, and a thorough system of retrenchment under 
the new constitution. The infant Hercules began to sit up 
and look around. The Legislature of 1851 again took hold 
of railroad measures, and in a better spirit than had char- 
acterized its predecessors. But the benumbing incubus 
of " State policy " was not, even yet, entirely shaken off, 
and nothing definite was accomplished except the granting 
of a charter to the Ohio and Mississippi Company. This, 
however, was a good beginning, and much of the credit 
must be given Senator Douglas, whose frank letter on the 
subject exercised wide influence throughout the State. In 
this he said that if he were a legislator he would certainly 
grant a charter for the proposed road from Illinoistown to 
Terre Haute, and also to Vincennes, and to other lines across 
the State when any considerable portion of the people de- 
sired it. He would give a preference to the towns and 
cities of Illinois where it could be done without injury or in- 
justice to others, but he would never sacrifice the great 
agricultural interests for the benefit of a much smaller interest 
in the towns. The country was not made for the towns, 
but the towns for the convenience of the country. This 
sensible advice not only exercised an immediate influence, 
but also contributed largely to further future action. 

Toward the conclusion of this controversy, which con- 
tinued until the special Legislature of 1853, the efforts of 
those interested in " State policy " centred entirely upon 
the defeat of the proposed charter for the Atlantic and Mis- 
sissippi Railroad, known as the " Brough Road," projected 
from Terre Haute via Vandalia to St. Louis. This was 
fought with exceeding bitterness. But these efforts failed, 
and " State policy " disappeared forever from Illinois poli- 
tics. To show to what extremes its advocates were willing 
to go, Joseph Gillespie, the special champion of the Alton 
interests, introduced a bill into the Senate in 1853, by which 



THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD 437 

all existing chartered railroad corporations were to be pro- 
tected for ten years against the building of any competing 
roads within twenty-five miles, unless existing corporations 
first consented thereto. To quote Davidson and Stuve: 

" This amazing proposition was a fit climax to all the mon- 
strous, absurd, and pernicious schemes of the ' State Policy ' party. 
While many of the other States of the Union, animated by a noble 
spirit of enterprise, were removing legal obstructions, and instead 
adopting broad and liberal railroad incorporation laws, throwing 
wide open their borders, and inviting capital from abroad to build 
railroads and create competition wherever it inclined, it was coolly 
proposed in the great State of Illinois, which needed development 
very badly, to draw a cordon of exclusiveness around her borders, 
and within to combine with soulless corporations in the monopoly 
of all improvements, and hand over to them, bound by the strong 
cords of the law, the people of the State to be fleeced without 
stint." 

The bill failed to become a law. 

But the one happening which, occurring at exactly the 
proper moment, turned the current of popular approval in 
the right direction was the magnificent donation of some 
three million acres of land by Act of Congress to the State 
as security for the building of the Illinois Central Railroad. 
This was in September, 1850. The final passage of the 
measure, after two previous defeats, was hailed with dem- 
onstrations of great joy by the people and the press. Almost 
immediately Illinois Internal Improvement bonds made an 
advance often per cent in the New York market. The total 
railroad mileage in the State at that time was insignificant, 
consisting merely of a small section of the Northern Cross 
Road, from Meredosia and Naples, on the Illinois River, to 
Springfield ; the Chicago and Galena, from the former city 
as far as Elgin ; and a six-mile coal track across the American 
Bottom from opposite St. Louis to the mines in the bluffs. 
The first ten miles of the Chicago and Galena (which since 



4^8 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

1865 has been consolidated with the Chicago and North 
Western Railway) was finished from Chicago to Harlem, 
December 30, 1848, and completed to the Mississippi River, 
at Fulton, in December, 1855. It was the first railroad turn- 
ing a locomotive wheel in the city of Chicago, and the first 
to connect the commerce of the Mississippi with that of the 
Lakes — the dream of a generation at last fulfilled. 

The act by which the general Government thus made 
possible the immediate building of the Illinois Central, 
granted a right of way for the railroad through the public 
lands the width of two hundred feet, from the southern ter- 
minus of the Illinois and Michigan Canal at La Salle, to a 
point at or near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi 
Rivers, and for branches to Chicago and Galena. But the 
main grant to the State, which enabled this gigantic work to 
be undertaken without delay, was the alternate sections of 
land, designated by even numbers for six sections deep, on 
each side of its trunk or branches. The road was to be begun 
simultaneously at its northern and southern termini, and 
completed within ten years. The minimum price of the odd- 
numbered sections, which remained in Government owner- 
ship, was raised from $1 .25 to ;^2.50 per acre. The entire 
body of land was taken out of market for two years, and when 
restored in the Fall of 1852, it, in fact, brought an average 
of ^5.00 per acre. So, while the public lands were thus 
by the prospect of the building of the road rendered more 
salable, and at a much higher price, and the Government 
not only lost nothing in dollars and cents but in both time 
and cash gained largely, the gift was, nevertheless, a splen- 
did one, and resulted in almost measureless benefit to the 
State. 

The point of departure of the Chicago branch from the 
main line was not fixed in the act, — an omission which re- 
sulted in much contention. Many worthy and ambitious 
towns came at once into bitter competition. La Salle was 



> 

o 

a 



o 

en 

r 



2 H 



> 

o 

> 

X 
O 
G 




THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD 439 

eager for it ; Bloomington, already figuring on a continuation 
of the old Alton and Sangamon (now the Chicago and Alton), 
wished this Chicago connection badly ; while Shelbyville, 
which was a point on the old original central survey, and 
never dreamed of being left off the main line, entered the 
contest for the branch also, and lost both. But the company, 
in their location of a route, took little consideration of any- 
thing except to run their line wherever there was the largest 
amount of vacant land which could be brought within the 
limits of the Government grant. This proved the controlling 
influence, both regarding the main trunk and the branches. 
The Legislature spent much time in dealing with the various 
questions naturally arising under so important a grant, es- 
pecially as to the projected route, and the place for beginning 
the branch to Chicago. Nothing very definite was reached, 
and the point of divergence was finally left with the company 
to be situated anywhere " north of the parallel of thirty-nine 
degrees, thirty minutes, of north latitude." The point se- 
lected is the site of the present city of Clinton. Regarding 
the main stem, the decision was but little less definite, the 
only point fixed being the northeast corner of Township 21 
North, Range 2 East, third Principal Meridian, from 
which the road should not vary in its general course more 
than five miles. This made it reasonably certain that the 
main line would pass through the towns of Clinton, Decatur, 
and Bloomington. Without taking time to dwell upon the 
numerous schemes with which speculators, eager to gain by 
this tremendous transaction, flooded the Legislature ; the 
many bills introduced, a few valuable, the most bad ; or 
the rather tiresome details of legislative action over matters 
of minor importance, — it is suflicient to say that, all legal ob- 
stacles having been finally overcome, in March, 1852, the con- 
tracts for construction were let, and the work went rapidly 
forward, without further serious interruption. Dunleith was 
reached June 12, 1855, and Chicago, September 26, 1856. 



440 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

But alas, for the best interests of the State, the Legislature 
had voted all this valuable concession out of public control 
and ownership into the hands of a syndicate of capitalists! 
It gave them the use of the donated land for the purpose of 
raising the necessary funds for carrying out the project, and 
accepted in return their pledge of an annual payment of in- 
terest from the gross earnings of the road. The men to 
w^hom this great concession w^as made, and who later formed 
the company that built the road, were Robert Schuyler, 
George Griswold, Gouverneur Morris, Jonathan Sturgis, 
George W. Ludlow, and John F. A. Sanford, of the city of 
New York; and David A. Neal, Franklin Haven, and Robert 
Rantoul, Jr., of Boston. To quote again the pertinent lan- 
guage of Davidson and Stuve: 

" This work was one of the most stupendous and ingenious 
speculations of modern times. By means of it a few sagacious 
capitalists became the owners of a first-class railroad, more than 
seven hundred miles long, in full running order, complete in rolling- 
stock and every equipage, and millions of acres of land, worth in 
the aggregate perhaps ^40,000,000, without the actual outlay of a 
cent of their own money. This project was among the first to 
illustrate the immense field there was opening up in this country 
for bold and gigantic railroad operations by capitalists; and as con- 
trasted with the State Internal Improvement scheme of 1836—37, 
it was furthermore an example of the superiority of private enter- 
prise over State or governmental undertakings. The State at that 
time, with a population of about 350,000, mostly small farmers, 
authorized a loan exceeding ;^ 10,000,000, to construct public 
works. One of these was the Central Railroad, upon which a 
considerable sum was expended. Hard times and a general collapse 
followed in rapid order. Now, with this grant of land from the 
general Government (not far short of 3,000,000 acres within a 
belt of fifteen miles along the route of the road) to aid ]its con- 
struction, these gentlemen, backed by credit and capital, step for- 
ward, propose to take the lands and build the road, which is to 
belong to them when built. The State accepts the offer, incorpo- 



THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD 441 

rates the gentlemen's scheme by perpetual charter, and endows 
them with this munificent domain and all the property and remains 
of the old Central road. After the road is put in operation, the 
company pays the State annually seven per centum of its gross 
earnings in lieu of all taxes for ever. Having acquired a vested 
right, the State has no other than police control over the company, 
and as it is a foreign corporation, disputes between them must be 
settled in foreign, i.e.. United States courts. The minimum valu- 
ation of lands acquired, so soon as the road should be completed, 
was ^20,000,000, exceeding by ;$6,ooo,ooo the cost of the road, 
estimated at ^20,000 per mile; which, in Illinois, was liberal, 
because she presented the most uniform and favorable surface for 
the construction of railroads of any other State in the Union. 
Two-thirds of the land was stipulated as security for the principal 
of the construction bonds, 250,000 acres to secure the interest 
fund, and the remainder as a contingent fund. The construction 
bonds found ready sale at par, and built the road. The land sales 
yielded interest to set off in part the accruing interest on the bonds. 
The redemption of the bonds completed, the road and all its 
appurtenances remain the property of the fortunate gentlemen 
who had the sagacity to see how it could be built without costing 
them a cent. 

"But they did not reap all the developed benefits of this grand 
enterprise. The alternate sections of land reserved by the Federal 
Government within fifteen miles of the route of the road, numbered 
as many acres as the grant to the State ; it had been for twenty-odd 
years in market at ;^i.25 per acre without sale, but now when again 
put in the market in the Fall of 1852, it was eagerly taken up and 
readily brought from three to seven dollars per acre, and more, had 
not settlers and speculators combined not to bid against each other. 
As it was, the sales averaged five dollars per acre. The Govern- 
ment thus realized a profit of some 1^9,000,000 by its munificent 
policy of giving away half its land in this locality. This was 
indeed casting bread upon the water, which after many days, 
returned several fold. 

" But, besides the general Government, the State, too, was at 
the same time benefited by having its unsettled interior opened up to 
tides of thronging immigrants, its rich soil brought into cultivation, 



442 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

population increased, and its resources and taxable wealth augmented 
by many millions of dollars. The products of the newly developed 
region found a ready avenue to the markets of the world. Chicago, 
too, was thus furnished with another iron tentaculum to reach far 
into the interior of the State for commercial food to give increase to 
her marvellous life. But the greatest immediate benefit resulting 
from the building of the road and branches accrued to the lands 
within due and proper marketing distance of the lines, estimated at 
the enormous amount of ten million acres in private hands." 



CHAPTER XXXI 

HISTORIC SPOTS AS THEY APPEAR TO-DAY 

TO one seeking those spots throughout Illinois hallowed 
by historical associations, there must come more often 
disappointment than pleasure. Many will be found im- 
possible to locate, even with the most diligent research and 
the aid of a vivid imagination ; others are uncertain, so ob- 
scured by the haze of years and less important occurrences 
as to divide local investigators into hostile camps ; while, 
nearly without exception, the almost criminal neglect of a 
great State regarding the proper preservation of these memo- 
rials of important historic happenings brings a tinge of sad- 
ness to all who reverence the great names and deeds of the 
past. Illinois history has been crowded with events well 
worthy of perpetual remembrance, events stirring and heroic, 
tinged by romance; events having vital bearing not only 
upon the State, but the nation, of far too great importance to 
be lost in the haze of the careless years. 

From 1813, for a period of at least twenty-five years, 
Shawneetown situated on the Ohio River but a few miles 
below the mouth of the Wabash, ranked as the most impor- 
tant city of the Territory and State, the chosen home of wealth 
and refinement, the social and political centre, and the resi- 
dence of men who carved their names deeply upon the rock 
of Western history. In an out-of-the-way corner, not easily 
accessible to the ordinary traveller of to-day, few realize the 
abiding interest which yet invests this old town, and yields 
to it a peculiar atmosphere of the earlier days. Generations 
have come and gone since Eddy, Marshall, McLean, and 
hundreds of others scarcely less famous or worthy, walked 

443 



444 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

these shaded streets in the long ago, but the town which 
knew them then has not so greatly changed with the speeding 
years. Long without a railroad, it yet remains quaint and 
old, a village quietly brooding over its past glories, and con- 
taining many an ancient relic of those stirring times when 
history was being fresh chiselled from the stone. The famous 
old tavern in which La Fayette was entertained with such 
formal ceremony, and where every distinguished Illinoisan of 
that age was at some time a guest, was but lately destroyed 
by fire, and much yet lingers to bear the awakened memory 
back even to territorial days, when nearly all of this Illinois 
country was an almost trackless wilderness, and brave souls 
fought for life along this far frontier. 

The Henry Eddy house, where the great editor lived and 
worked, stands almost as he left it, fronting the main busi- 
ness street ; while still looking calmly forth upon the peaceful 
Ohio, the first brick building erected in the town, the old 
Marshall house, historic as the original home of Illinois' 
first State bank, established in 1813, and the centre of all 
early financial operations, remains almost without a change 
in outward appearance. Everywhere about the ancient town 
one is constantly happening on such reminders of the past, 
the old-fashioned homes peeping forth from amid those great 
trees guarding them, constantly wooing the memory back to 
days and events long vanished, and, by the many, long for- 
gotten. A strange history of light and shadow hovers about 
this quaint old place. 

Shawanoe Town it was in that far-off past when the 
fierce tribes of the Shawnees swept the valley of the Ohio, 
and held this as their western stronghold. But far away, 
beyond even that era of tradition, the great mounds on which 
the town is built, and which even yet yield up their treasures 
of dead, bespeak an antiquity greater than history can meas- 
ure. Here, undoubtedly, was once the metropolis of an 
utterly vanished race, and their voiceless memorials, in 




LAST RELIC OF FORT CHARTRES 

THE POWDER-MAGAZINE 




PRESENT ASPECT OF THE SITE OF FORT MASSAC 



HISTORIC SPOTS AS THEY APPEAR TO-DAY 445 

mounds and graves innumerable, dot all that ancient trail 
leading from New Haven to the Negro Salt Wells. The one 
locally referred to as Dutton's is the most famous. Here, 
in 1800, drifted the first vt^hite settler, named Michael Sprin- 
kle. He erected his lonely cabin of logs on the summit of one 
of these old Indian graves, and there he remained for fourteen 
years, while there slowly gathered about him the nucleus of 
the growing town. By 1806, the inhabitants had a mail 
route connecting them with the far-off East; by 1810 their 
lands had been surveyed ; in 181 1, with wondering eyes they 
looked out upon the first steamboat that ever ploughed the 
waters of La Belle Riviere ; and in 18 12 the Government 
honored them by the establishment in their midst of a land- 
office. It was the salt trade of the Illinois Salines, situated 
close at hand, which gave such early importance to Shawnee, 
but the class of men developed here by the exigencies of fron- 
tier life would have yielded distinction to any community. 
This was the home of the first State bank, the centre of the 
first wild land speculation, the scene of the greatest money 
panic in the early history of the State. Here was published 
the second paper in Illinois, *' The Illinois Emigrant," and 
here, in houses yet standing, Robert G. Ingersoll studied law 
and John A. Logan was married. Here, in later times, 
dwelt, and worked his miracles of finance, that Colonel 
Sellers whom Mark Twain has immortalized. Time and 
time again has Shawnee been buried beneath the rising 
waters of the Ohio, in spite of protecting dykes. Sixty- 
six feet above low-water mark that stream has swept, rising 
to eight feet two inches in the stores nestling behind the 
shelter of the levee. Steamboats have navigated her streets ; 
yet, old and quaint, prosperous and beautiful, Shawanoe 
Town yet smiles out above the wide, defeated river, proud 
of her glorious past and hopeful of her future, rich in his- 
toric memories and names that can never die. 

Just below this site, but exactly where as yet undeter- 



446 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

mined, only "at the first landing after leaving Shawanoe 
Town," Croghan, the English Ambassador to Pontiac, 
met his disastrous defeat at the hands of a band of Kicka- 
poos and Mascoutins ; while twenty miles farther down the 
stream is that famous Cave-in-Rock which for many a 
year sheltered within its black heart those terrible gangs of 
outlaws under command of Mason, Murrell, and Ford. 
It is a shallow and gloomy hole even yet, the walls written 
over with names of peaceful visitors, its portal gaudily 
decorated with patent medicine advertisements; while the 
upper cave, as in the past, can be attained only by means of 
a most laborious climb up a rude tree-trunk ladder. This 
gruesome spot, which in those old border days witnessed 
many a scene of revelry and bloodshed, is to-day no more 
than a curiosity, its past victims, white and black, forgotten. 
Just below it, where, in 1801, there stood one lone cabin, 
there is to-day a thrifty village ; but in all of Hardin County 
there exists, even now, not a mile of railroad to link its 
population with the civilization all about them. Here one 
sees the old river towns just as they existed in other genera- 
tions. 

All of this Illinois shore is historic, and has witnessed 
many a strange flotilla sweep by, both in peace and in war. 
Along every nook and bend have been the camping-spots 
of wearied emigrants, of war-worn soldiers, of adventurous 
hunters and preying outlaws. Here the great family arks 
have drifted down the current, the men toiling awkwardly 
at the long oars, the women and children gazing in wonder- 
ment on the new land ; here have been seen the uniforms of 
French grenadiers, British Highlanders, and the buff and 
blue of the Continental troops. Along here came Clark's 
backwoodsmen in moccasins and fringed hunting-shirts, 
and many an adventurer of high and low degree, not a few 
of whom have left their mark upon the Old World's story. 
The towns one sees nestling along the bank are old, their 



HISTORIC SPOTS JS THET APPEAR TO-DAY 447 

names associated with early State history, their houses 
teUing of that interesting past in which they bore part 
bravely and well — Elizabethtown, Golconda, Metropolis, 
America, Post Wilkins, — all a part of the great story of 
colonization and development, of early privation and achieve- 
ment. 

Old Massac, on the site of a yet more ancient forti- 
fication, and close beside Mermet's old log chapel of the As- 
sumption, is passed just before the steamer rounds in to the 
Metropolis wharf-boat. Crowning a prominent bluff which 
commands a wide view up the river, it is still exceedingly 
imposing from below, and well worthy, from the stand- 
point of beauty as well as history, of being restored and 
preserved by the Daughters of the American Revolution. 
Above, along the old redoubt, now largely levelled by time 
and the warring elements, one can dream long of the stirring 
deeds enacted here, and of those gallant soldiers who have 
looked forth upon this surrounding scene of river and 
forest. This is, indeed, historic ground, and no words 
can do justice to its memories. The old ramparts, now 
almost shapeless, may yet be traced into something of their 
former condition, the position of the bastions defined, 
and even the dim outlines of the ancient building within 
their shelter outlined with some degree of accuracy, while 
the old-time well which once supplied the thirsty garrison 
has left its deep imprint in the soil. It is easy, indeed, to 
stand in the centre of this old redoubt, on the very spot 
where St. Ange, Aubry, Macarty, Wilkinson, St. Clair, 
and Burr have stood, and reconstruct the demolished earth- 
works, crowning them with the log palisade, and filling 
the parade-ground with gallant, brilliant figures ; easy to 
lean out above crumbling bastion, and look far away to 
the mouth of that little creek where Clark's frontiersmen 
made daring landing on the Illinois shore, and mark that 
strange new flag with its stars and stripes gleaming brightly 



448 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

against the blue of the sky. Fort Massac! What wealth 
of romance, forgotten and lost forever, lies hidden beneath 
your green-clad ruins! What brave hopes have been buried 
here! What great deeds have here found birth! Careless, 
indeed, is that child of Illinois v^ho will fail to give you 
honor. 

Rounding the point below Cairo where these two great 
rivers of the West unite, and pushing up against the swift 
current of the Mississippi, the way is not long until we come 
into that region first settled by the white explorers of the 
Illinois. Of the earliest American settlements, those at 
New Design and Bellefontaine, almost no memory remains. 
It is extremely difficult, even if possible, to exactly locate 
their sites, and the names have long since vanished from 
off the maps. Burksville Station, on the railroad, near the 
centre of Monroe County, is probably about where New 
Design once stood. Burksville, two miles west of the station, 
is itself a very old town, and contains houses ancient enough 
in appearance and architectural design to make one believe 
its history might extend even to this early period. Un- 
fortunately, throughout much of this neighborhood little 
interest in local history has been developed, and the resi- 
dents are of small assistance to an investigator. Certain it 
is, however, that nothing remains which can be definitely 
associated with the earliest settlement of American pioneers. 

In the region occupied by the first French settlements 
the result is more satisfactory, although here ruin and 
decay mark much which a little care would have easily 
preserved. Renault is still an isolated village, contain- 
ing an old French house or two ; St. Philippe and New 
Chartres have utterly vanished, save as one finds here and 
there on the old sites a few wild garden plants, or occasion- 
ally the remnants of a well. The site of the former is 
covered by a farm, although even to this day a portion of 
its long line of field is known locally as " The King's High- 



HISTORIC SPOTS AS THEY APPEAR TO-DAY 449 

way," perhaps a dim memory of that excellent road along 
which the negroes of Renault toiled on his service. 

Prairie du Rocher, situated at the edge of the American 
Bottom, with the great rock sentinels of the bluff towering 
high above its little houses, has fared better then any of 
these other towns of the old French regime. Yet, in the 
long years that have fled, and especially since the late 
coming of the prosaic railroad to her borders, she has lost 
much of those characteristics connecting her with the 
picturesque past. Here and there an old French residence 
rewards the traveller, and the narrow, shaded streets be- 
speak plainly the earlier days. A few descendants of 
Renault's negro slaves are to be met with, while French 
names, many of them famous in the long ago, are common 
among the residents. But Prairie du Rocher is no longer 
a French village ; the sunny, sleepy contentment of the 
fathers has departed, and the new generation, intensely 
American in spirit, retains little interest in that dim and 
fading past in which their town bore so prominent a part. 
To one who seeks historical material, the quaint old ceme- 
tery, containing the body of many a French pioneer and 
soldier, or friar of the black or the gray robe, oflFers the 
greatest reward. 

Four miles away, along an ordinary country road lead- 
ing across the level bottom-land, lie the remnants of Fort 
Chartres. A farmhouse occupies the site, and the occupants 
draw their water from out the old well that once supplied 
the fort. It is a lonely, desolate spot, the ancient stone walls 
levelled even with the surface, yet plainly traceable along 
three sides. The fourth side, which was undermined by the 
river, has entirely disappeared. The wagon entrance to 
the present farmyard occupies the exact position where the 
great gates formerly swung, and it is even possible to deter- 
mine something of the ground-form of those various build- 
ings of stone which once stood within. The outline of the 



450 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

ditch, which we are told was never completed, may be 
dimly seen, while the cellars, supposed to have belonged to 
the commandant's house and the barracks, now nearly filled 
level to the surface with debris^ are visible. All that re- 
mains unchanged by time is the old powder magazine. It 
stands, massive and picturesque, within the area of what was 
once the southeastern bastion, its walls four feet thick slop- 
ing upward about twelve feet from the ground, and rounded 
at the top. The interior, nearly thirty feet square, remains 
entirely uninjured, although the guarding doors are of 
course absent. 

Standing beside this venerable relic of the past, and look- 
ing forth through the ancient gateway where so many have 
stood and gazed during the vanished years, or marched 
forth to battle, one can do no better than reecho the words 
of Edward G. Mason, written on this very spot: 

" Here one may well invoke the shades of Macarty, and De 
Villiers, and St. Ange, and easily bring back the past. For, as it is 
to-day, it has seen them all as they went to and fro before it or ex- 
amined its store of shot and shell ; it has heard the word of com- 
mand as the grenadiers drilled on the parade-ground hard by; it has 
watched the tawny chieftains and their followers trooping in single 
file through the adjacent gateway ; and past its moss-grown walls 
the bridal processions of Madelaine Loisel and Elizabeth Mont- 
charveaux and the other fair ladies from the fort have gone to the 
little church of St. Anne. And gazing at it in such a mood, until 
all about was peopled with *- the airy shapes of long ago,' and one 
beheld again the gallant company which laid the foundations of 
this fortress with such high hope and purpose, — the hurrying 
scouts passing through its portals with tidings of Indian foray or 
Spanish march, the valiant leaders setting forth from its walls on 
distant expeditions against savage or civilized foe, the colonists 
flocking to its storehouse or council-chamber, the dusky warriors 
thronging its enclosure with Chicago or Pontiac at their head, the 
gathering there of those who founded a great city, the happy village 
at its gates, and the scenes of its momentous surrender, which 



HISTORIC SPOTS AS THEY APPEAR TO-DAY 451 

sealed the loss of an empire to France, — it seemed not unreason- 
able to wish that the State of Illinois might, while yet there is time, 
take measures to permanently preserve, for the sake of the memo- 
ries, the romance, and the history interwoven in its fabric, what 
still remains of Old Fort Chartres." 

It is seventeen miles to Fort Gage, over the level bot- 
tom land, and along the edge of the frowning bluffs, 
including ferriage across the Kaskaskia River. A hard, 
toilsome climb up the steep rock-strewn side of a high hill 
is necessary before you attain the earthworks crowning the 
summit, but once there, the view spread out across the wide 
valley is well worthy the struggle. Almost at the foot of this 
bluff, preserved with care, and remaining outwardly just 
as when it was one of the famous homes about old Kaskaskia, 
honored by having La Fayette as guest, and many others 
whose names have become part of history, stands the former 
residence of bluff old Pierre Menard, the first Lieutenant- 
Governor of Illinois. What rare scenes of gayety and sorrow, 
revelry and despair, its walls have witnessed ! What memo- 
ries of departed glories must ever haunt its shadows, as, 
with that silent fort far above, it still faces those cruel 
waters which have engulfed all its old companions! 

The ruins of the fort are well preserved, the walls of 
earth from which the palisades have long ago disappeared 
being considerably higher than at Massac, and more easily 
traceable in their entirety. Yet it is imposssible to deter- 
mine where the gate originally swung, nor is there any trace 
remaining of that roadway which must at one time have 
wound upward to the summit. Beyond the fort lies an old 
French cemetery, overgrown with grass, with many of the 
monuments lying overturned and broken on the ground. 
Here, from the summit of the ancient redoubt, can be obtained 
the best possible view of all that remains of Old Kaskaskia, 
and of where the main town once stood in its pride, now 
covered by the rolling waters of that remorseless river which 



452 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

caused its slow destruction. And little enough there is that 
is left — a mere shack or two, tottering helplessly on the 
verge of the stream, which is only biding its time to drag them 
down also; the old court-house, sad relic of those proud days 
of power when Kaskaskia was the chief city of Randolph 
County and of the State as well ; the trembling, dismantled 
remains of the priests' house, said to have been the first build- 
ing ever erected of brick west of the Alleghanies. Under that 
rushing yellow flood the lost years of history, of romance, of 
tender memory, lie but half recorded. Few, indeed, are the 
spots about which cluster such recollections of great events 
and honored names. The French, tl>e English, the Ameri- 
can Kaskaskia, about it hovers every memory of those stern 
old days of struggle and endeavor ; and the desolate spot 
where it once stood in its simple beauty is glorified still by 
the deeds of two hundred years of history. Of its old-time 
neighbor and rival, Cahokia, there is little remnant, if any, 
the site being now utilized for switching purposes by a 
railroad. 

Farther up the Mississippi, twenty miles beyond War- 
saw (near which place Forts Edwards and Johnson were 
built and garrisoned in 1814), is the most interesting town 
remaining in Illinois — Nauvoo, the famed city of tlie 
Mormons and the Icarians. Situated partly on the flat, and 
partly upon the high blufi^ beyond, beautiful at a distance 
because of the diversity of its peculiar architecture and the 
picturesque grouping of its ancient homes, it is no less 
attractive when one wanders along its narrow, rock-strewn 
streets, and amid the old-fashioned houses, each with its 
story of the past. The marvellous Old Temple has gone, 
the space it once occupied remaining still a vacant spot on 
the high bluff summit. Nor are there many relics of the 
Icarian struggle, save an almost shapeless ruin here and 
there ; but the old Masonic Temple, the building where 
"The Expositor" was published just once, the old Mansion 




PORTRAIT OF JOHN MARSHALL 

FROM PAINTING BY MIFLIN, 1834; NOW IN POSSESSION OF 

GOVERNOR Marshall's descendants 



HISTORIC SPOTS AS THEY APPEAR TO-DAT 453 

House with its secret closet, the old Post-office building, and 
the former homes of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Elder Heber 
C. Kimball, Brigham and Joseph Young, and numerous 
others, bring vividly before the mind the stirring events of 
Mormon occupancy and the struggle waged here for su- 
premacy. Twenty miles away, at Carthage, stands the 
old stone jail where the Smiths were killed. Nauvoo, still 
a typical river town, untouched by any invading railway, 
remains, like a leaf torn from out an old book, possessing 
a charm peculiarly its own. 

Many a point of historic interest in the State must be 
passed over lightly. Black Hawk's Tower looks out over 
the beautiful valley of the Rock, where once lay the famed 
village of the Sauks. The spot has been degraded into a 
cheap amusement park, and a like unfortunate fate has 
befallen that superb rock where the Fox nation died in 
heroic starvation, and where Fort St. Louis lifted its pali- 
sades in guardianship over the Algonquins in the heart of 
this Illinois country, when La Salle and Tonty ruled the 
wilderness. Below it stretch the broad Utica meadows, 
fair as in the old days when Marquette preached there to 
the wondering Illinois. Campbell's Island, the scene of 
Rector's magnificent fight in the War of 18 12, is also a re- 
sort for Summer pleasure, but the exact spot of that gallant 
struggle, which, from discoveries in the sandy beach, has 
been identified beyond question, is soon to be marked by 
an appropriate monument. 

Few spots in Illinois are more interesting historically 
than those immediately surrounding the Peoria Lake, the 
" Pimiteoui Lake " of La Salle. From the earliest days of 
French exploration down to the expiring of the fur trade* 
this region teemed with events. It had ever been an Indian 
trading and council ground, and great villages from time 
immemorial stood along the detroit or strait connecting 
the two lakes. Little is known of French history on this 



454 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

spot between 1700 and 1765, except that traders were almost 
constantly there. In the early days of French permanent 
settlement, that is, from 1765, an exceedingly large trading 
town, said at one time to have exceeded four thousand souls, 
sprang up in the same neighborhood, long known as Le Pe ; 
but later, for some cause unknown, the population, or 
what remained of it, shifted to the present site of Peoria, 
the old French claims skirting the shore for some distance 
below the modern Rock Island Railroad depot. This 
latter building is believed to occupy almost exactly the 
position where Foit Clark formerly stood, when General 
Howard left it, reporting it to the officials in the East as the 
strongest post of its kind in the West. 

Along the bluffs on either side of the lake and river, as 
well as beside the straits, numerous remains of ancient forti- 
fications have been discovered, many of them, no doubt, hav- 
ing been thrown up by French and American fur traders in 
protection against Indian treachery, or else relics of the 
English invasions of the Revolution, or the American ad- 
vance of 18 12. Unfortunately, these old-time forts, grass- 
grown and apparently most ancient, have sadly divided local 
historians in their eager search after the more probable site of 
La Salle's Fort Crevecoeur. In truth, so vague are the exist- 
ing descriptions of the exact spot chosen by these earliest 
explorers for their first fort-building in the Illinois country, 
that unless other material be discovered in the French ar- 
chives, or the buttes of the old palisades (possibly yet pre- 
served in the earth) be accidentally uncovered, this is a 
point which must likely remain unsolved. No one dare 
proclaim beyond a doubt whether La Salle's choice lay 
along the strait, or upon the river below the lower lake ; 
yet the present writer has little hesitation in saying that both 
spots now designated by local historians as their choice for 
Fort Crevecoeur must be considered erroneous, even from 
the vague description left us. 




RESIDENCE OF JOHN MARSHALL, SHAWNEETOWN, IN 
WHICH FIRST BANK IN STATE WAS ESTABLISHED, 1813 



SMALL \1E\V TAKEN BEFORE LEVEE WAS BUILT 



HISTORIC SPOTS JS THET APPEAR TO-DAY 455 

The very purpose of building this fort, which was tem- 
porary, and to secure, without interruption from the Indians, 
the construction of a vessel with which to navigate the 
Mississippi, would seem to preclude at once the possibility 
that it was ever located upon a high and almost inaccessible 
bluff far away from the river shore, and consequently 
seriously removed from the work to be accomplished. The 
small number of La Salle's followers would also be against 
such a probability. This natural argument, strong as it 
is, can only add its weight to the direct evidence of those 
taking part in its construction. Mason is extremely cau- 
tious in his use of the descriptive language employed, and 
his translation may be safely relied upon, although our 
conclusions differ widely. Briefly, it is this. The spot chosen 
for fort-building was on the left bank of the Illinois River, 
about two miles and a half below its exit from Pimiteoui 
Lake. A great thaw (the nature of which every Peorian 
will easily understand) had cleared the river of ice from 
the lake to the place selected, and the builders went there 
in canoes the evening of January 15, 1680. The spot 
decided on was a low hill (Hennepin, in one passage, says a 
small eminence), a little more than a mile from the Indian 
village, two hundred paces distant from the bank of the 
river, which spread to its foot in the time of heavy rains. 
This description would seem to do away with any possibility 
that it could have crowned the high, steep bluff, or even 
occupied so inaccessible a position as the ledge where the 
Daughters of the Revolution have erected their memorial. 
Yet, there is a spot just below, and seemingly strangely 
overlooked, which almost exactly, taking into account the 
probable shoreward trend of the stream during the inter- 
vening centuries, meets the requirements. Here can be 
traced still the low hill, the small eminence, undoubtedly 
now far less marked in bold outlines than when Hennepin 
first surveyed it, with the two ravines, one on either side, 



456 HISTORIC ILLINOIS 

but greatly choked by accumulated debris^ and of less im- 
portance than formerly. Many things have combined to 
change the configuration of the ground, and it is marvel- 
lous that even so much remains to recall the mind to the 
friar's simple description. A long-used wagon-road, and 
the grading of a railway, have caused the trench connecting 
the two ravines to vanish totally, but otherwise the position 
is not only possible, it is far more probable than any of the 
others, and had it been left untouched by man, might 
possibly be identified beyond a doubt. Wesley City is the 
site of a very old French village, the encroaching river 
already making inroads on the ancient and almost forgot- 
ten burial-ground, and uncovering the foundation-posts of 
buildings long since vanished in decay. As early as 1819 
the American Fur Company had a factory here, very likely 
throwing up at that time those earthworks on the face of the 
bluff, even if that work had not been previously accom- 
plished by the earlier French inhabitants. It was known for 
years as the Trading Post, yet even the buildings then used 
have almost totally disappeared. On the spot which may 
have been occupied by Fort Crevecoeur an old distillery 
once stood. It likewise has vanished, while the house of 
Joseph M. Wilson, now upon the site, in its turn begins to 
look picturesque and ancient. Impossible as it must be 
to say definitely that here stood La Salle's first fortification 
in the Illinois country, the fourth in his great scheme of 
conquest, yet, to the mind of the present writer, it remains 
by far the most probable spot. 

Much more remains to be told, much more remains to 
be seen, — the place of battle on the willow-islands at the 
mouth of the Rock River, the old homes of Bishop Hill 
and Albion, the lead-fields about Galena with their scarcely 
written story, the site of Apple River Fort and its heroic 
defence, the old centre of Indian trade at Danville, the 
place where Clark and his men conquered the swollen 



HISTORIC SPOTS JS THET APPEAR TO-DAY 457 

Wabash, and that spot of mysterious tradition in Kendall 
County we know as Maramech, — all alike invite to deep 
research and careful study ; for few indeed are the happen- 
ings along those early years without their influence on a 
wider history than that of the mere State in which they 
chanced to be enacted. 

" Not without thy wondrous story, 
Illinois, Illinois, 
Can be writ the Nation's glory, 
Illinois, Illinois." 



THE END 



INDEX 



INDEX 



ABE 

Abenaki Indians, 67 

Aboite River, Ind., 157 

Abrams, Gordon, Commander of mili- 
tia, 368 

Accau, Michel, Hennepin's companion, 
60, 91 

Acts of Congress, of 1807, 171; in 1846, 
172; in 1791, 212; in 1800, 222; in 
1809, 222; in 18 13, 294; concerning 
powers of Governor, 303; in 181 2, 
303; in 1872, 426, in 1850, 437 

Adams, Captain, 261 

— County, settlers in, 296 
"Adventure," Illinois River boat, 427 

— Mississippi River steamboat, 423 
"^tna," fifth steamboat, 417 
Akers, Peter, 396 

Albion, Edwards Co., 242, 346, 347, 456 
Aldrich, Mark, tried for death of Joseph 

Smith, 278 
Alexander, General, 265 
Algonquin race in Illinois, 28, 29, 80-82, 

175. 177 

Allen, Colonel Robert, farm near Spring- 
field, 339 

, tried for death of Joseph Smith, 

278 

Allouez, Father, 83, 88, 90, 93 

"Altar" mounds, 23, 24 

"Alton Observer," Lovejoy's paper, 

330 
Alton, Painted rocks near, 45; State 
capital, 313; anti-slavery riots, 330; 
rivalry with other cities, 434, 435 

— and Sangamon Railroad, 439 
America, 447 

American Bottom, Mound-builders in 
the, 21; forts, 174; settlers in, 210, 290; 
Indian warfare in, 214-216; floods 
in, 428 



BAR 

American Fur Company, 168, 456 
"American," Illinois River boat, 427 
Anderson, Lieutenant Robert, 258 
Andover, Henry Co., 345 
Andrews, James, early settler, 210, 214 
"Annals of the West," 214 
"Anthony Wayne," river steamer, 426 
Apple River mines, 167; forts, 190, 257, 

263, 456; Winter's settlement, 255 
Ashmore settlement, Douglass Co., 301 
Assumption, Mission of the, at Fort 

Massac, 96, 185, 186, 447 
Atcherson, George, early settler, 210 
Atchison, Captain, of the " Winnebago, 

426 
Atkinson, General (White Beaver), 257- 

269 
Atlantic and Mississippi Railroad, 436 
Attorneys, Territorial regulation of, 308 
Aubray, Captain, in 
Aubry, M., 186 

Aviston, Journey's Fort at, 188 
Axley, James, Methodist preacher, 395 

Bad Axe, Battle of, 267-269 

Bailes, Mrs. Jesse, 245 

Bailey, Major, 259 

Baker, David J., 386 

— E. D., speaker at Statehouse, 1837, 

315. 337 

, engineer of the " New Orleans," 

416 
" Baltic," river steamboat, 420 
Bamber, , Monroe County settler, 

347 
Banks in State, 301, 445 
" Banner," Illinois River boat, 427 
Baptist Church, 396 
Barbeau, John Baptiste, of Prairie du 

Rocher, 292 



461 



462 



INDEX 



BAR 

Barbicr, Gabriel, of La Salle's company, 
68 

Baron, , of La Salle's company, 63 

64 

Barton, Joshua, duel with Thomas Rec- 
tor, 335 

Baugy, Chevalier de, 82, 83, 177 

Beardstown, Indian flints found at, 23; 
site in 1680, 30; troops for Black 
Hawk War gathered at, 257, 258, 
265 ; founded, 296; Harris-Henry af- 
fair, 341, 342 

Beaucoup Creek, 124 

Beausoliel's Island, 403 

Bellefontaine, oflScer at Ft. St. Louis, 

85. 177 

— 209, 214-216, 290, 448 

Belle Reve, same as St. Ange de Belle 

Reve 
Belle\alle, 127, 219, 221, 335, 336 
Beloit, Wis., 265 
Bennett, William, duel at Belleville, 335, 

Berry, Elijah C, State Auditor, 312 
Bersie, Captain, of the " St. Croix," 426 
Bienville, Governor of Louisiana, 179 

180 
Biggs, Stephen, Methodist preacher, 395 

— William, sheriff at Cahokia, 215, 292, 

304, 305 
Binneteau, Father Julien, 93, 95, 130 
Birbeck, Morris, founder of Wannock, 

Edwards Co., 346, 347 
Birch-bark canoes, 108 
Birds's settlement, mouth of Ohio River, 

293 

Bishop Hill, Henry Co., 345, 347-353. 
456 

Bissell, , Colonel 2d Ilhnois Volun- 
teers in Mexican War, 343 

Black Hawk, 249, 255-270 

— Hawk's War, 36, 37, 190, 255-270 

— Hawk's Watch Tower, 37, 256, 453 

— Indians, tribal markings, 37 

" Black Laws," adopted 1819, 321 
Black Partridge, 235, 237, 238 
Black well. Judge, 361 
Blanc, Noel, of La Salle's company, 63 



BRO 

Blanchard, Rufus, Maps of, 1 19 
Bledsoe, Dr., in Lincoln-Shields affair, 

339 
Blennerhasset, , St. Louis alderman, 

341 
Blcnnerhassets, The, 185 
Bloody Island, in river, opposite St. 

Louis, 335 
Bloomington, 439 
Blouin, Daniel, 159, 160 
Blue Mounds, Indian skirmish at, 265 
Blue River, 163 
Boats used on Illinois water-ways, 110, 

III, 165, 208, 295, 299, 300, 414-428 
Boilvin, Nicholas, 169 
Boisbriant, Major Pierre Dugue, 141, 

178, 179 
Boisrondet, FranQois de, 68, 72, 76, 177 
Bolles trail, 297 
Boltenhouse, , killed in Edwards 

Co., 242 
Bond County, 295, 379 
— Shadrach, 209, 290, 295, 304, 334, 378, 

379; the younger, 309 
Bond's Rangers, 242 
Bon Pas, river and town, 125, 383 
Boone, Major, 244 
" Boreas," river steamer, 426 
Bossu, French captain of marines, 416 
Bourdon, Jean, of La Salle's company, 

68 
Bouthillier, Francois, 170 

Bowen, , early settler, 210 

Bowman, Captain Joseph, with Clark, 

192, 200, 204-206 
Boyd's Grove, Charles S. Boyd's settle- 
ment, 255 

Boyle, , Chief Justice, 382 

Bradshaw, John, Johnson Co., 304 
Brady, Tom (" Monsieur Tom"), 155, 

156 
"Brazil," river steamer, 427 
Breese, Sidney, clerk to Secretary of 

State, 312 
Bridges across Mississippi, 425, 426 
Brockman, Thomas S., 281 
Brossard, , of La Salle's company, 

80 



INDEX 



463 



BRO 

" Brough Road," 436 
Brovra, B. Gratz, 343 

— County mounds opened, 23 

— Katharine Holland, 356 
, author quoted, 364 

, pro-slavery candidate for gov- 
ernor, 1822, 325 

Bryson, Wm., early settler, 218 

Buffalo Grove, Fort at, 257 

" Buffalo," Mississippi steamboat, 418 

Buffalo Rock, 58 

Bulbona settlement, 255 

Bureau County, Indians in, 30; trails 
across, 120, 121, 127; settlements in, 
297 

— Creek, settlement at Bulbona, 255 
Burger, Father, from Seminary of Que- 
bec, 95 

Burgess, , comrade of Tom Higgins, 

246 
Burksville, Monroe County, 448 

— Station, Monroe County, 448 
Burns house, Chicago, 227 
Burr, Aaron, 185, 186 

— Oak Grove, Indian skirmish at, 265 
Butler, Jackson, Kidnapping of, 323 

— William, challenged by Shields, 339, 

340 
Butte des Morts, Wis., 145 

Cabet, Etienne, 354-358 
Cacasotte, negro pirate, 403, 404 
Cache River, in Alexander County, 242 
Cadillac, La Mothe, 163 
Cahokia Indians, 29, 32, 131 

— mounds, 2 1 

— village (Kaoquias), 130, 133, 134, 141, 
157. 304,428,452 

Caldwell, Billy, 236, 238 

Calhoun County, 243 

Cameron, Captain, of the " Quincy,"426 

Camp Russell, near Edwardsville, 188- 

190, 241, 243, 244 
Campbell, John, erected fort on Illinois 

River, 188 

— Lieutenant, 248-251 

— Thompson, of Jo Daviess Co., 341, 
342 



CHI 

Campbell's Island, 248-251, 453 
Cane Ridge camp-meeting, 392, 393 
Cannon, John W., of the "Robert E. 

Lee," 420, 421 
Cape au Gris, 251 
Capital city of State, 309-317 
Capitol building, 31 1-3 17 
Carlin, T., settler in Green County, 294 
Carlinville, Macoupin Co., 126 
Carlyle, 127, 188, 242, 310 
Carroll, General, with Gen. La Fayette, 

422 
Carter's settlement, McDonough Co., 

296 
Carthage, 275-279, 453 
" Carthage Grays," 277 
Cartwright, Peter, 395, 396 
Casey, Zadoc, Methodist preacher, 396 
"Cataract," river steamboat, 419 
Catfish Creek, Lead furnace near, 168 
Caton, Judge, 311 
Catskill, Mrs. (nee McMahon), of 

Ridge Prairie, 221 
Cauchois, Jacques, of La Salle's com- 
pany, 68, 80 
Cautine, Flood at, 429 
Cave-in-Rock, on Ohio River, 293, 401, 

402, 446 
Cavelier, of La Salle's company, 85 
Central Railroad, 432 
Centre, Tazewell Co., 126 
Chachagouessiou, Indian chief, 62 
Chambers's Fort, vicinity of Lebanon, 188 
Champaign County, Hopkins's march 

across, 127 
" Champion," Illinois River boat, 427 
Chanjou, early colonist, 134 
Charleston, on Kaskaskia-Detroit trail, 

122 
Charlevoix, Father, 36, 131, 178, 179 
Charron, Frangois, early colonist, 134 
Chassagonache, Chief, 92 
Chaudonnaire, St. Joseph chief, 238 
Chevalier, Don Luis, 151 
Che vet, Pierre, early colonist, 134 
Chicago, 56, 67, 78, 93, 107, 116, 126, 

128, 161, 174, 187, 223-239, 255, 297, 

369, 433, 435, 437-439 



464 



INDEX 



CHI 

Chicago and Alton Railroad, 439 

— and Galena Railroad, 433, 434, 437 

— and North Western Railroad, 438 
Chickasaw Bluff, The third, 180 
Chillicothe (Gomo's village), 127, 243 
Chilton, Madison Co., settlement, 293 
Christy, Major, 244 

Clark, Francis, second school-teacher, 

398 

— General, 36, 306 

— George Rogers, 123-125, 157, i6i, 
186, 191-207, 288, 380, 446 

— John, clergyman and school-teacher, 

399 

— John, Methodist preacher, 394 
Clarksville, opposite Louisville, Ky., 

380 

Clingan, John, 395 

Clinton County, 245 

Code Duello, 333-344 

Colbert, Marquette's name for Missis- 
sippi, 47 

" Cold Water," Illinois River boat, 427 

Cole, Captain, of the " Rapids," 426 

— Colonel Edward, 184 

Coles County, Trail across, 122; settled, 
296 

— Governor Edward, 324-326, 346, 422 
College of St. Marie, Montreal, has 

Marquette's letter, 53 
Collet, Father, R^coUet friar, 93 
Collin, of La Salle's company, 61 
"Comet," second steamboat, 417 
Commerce, founded by Isaac Galland, 

271 
Congregational Church in Illinois coun- 
try, 398 
Cook County, Indians in, 30; Sauk 
trail crossed, 120 

— Daniel P., 386 

Copper mines on Lake Superior, 17 
Couture, of La Salle's company, 86 
Covington, Washington Co., 242, 363 
Craig, Perry Co., 124 
Cr^val, of La Salle's company, 68 
" Criterion," Illinois River boat, 427 
Croghan, Colonel, 36; (afterwards Ma- 
jor) 287, 446 



DeL 

Crozicr, Samuel, senator from Ran- 
dolph Co., 362 

Cruvat, Don Francesco, Spanish com- 
mander at St. Louis, 150, 154 

Cumberland County, Trail across, 122 

Dad Joe's Grove, Settlementat, 255, 
297 

Dadant, , of Icarian Colony, 356 

Dalles of the Wisconsin River, 268 

Daniels, , in Jackson County, 293 

" Danite Band," 273 

Danville, point of convergence for trails, 
116; on mail route, 128; scene of en- 
gagement between Spanish and In- 
dians, 153 

Darnielle, Isaac, 381 

D'Artaguette's expedition, 88, 97, 180 

D'Artigny, le Sieur, early colonist, 134 

Dartmouth, Lord, 159 

Daughters of the American Revolution, 
187, 447, 455 

D'Autray, Sieur, of La Salle's company, 
61, 63, 64, 68, 80 

Davenport, Colonel George, 169, 413 

— Iowa, Indian village on site of, 38 
Davidson and Stuv6, 136, 138, 213, 244, 

305. 335' 43I' 437. 440-442 
Davis farm, on Indian Creek, near Ot- 
tawa, 263 

— Jacob, tried for death of Joseph 
Smith, 278 

— Jefferson, 343 

Dawson, John, representative from San- 
gamon Co., 313 
De Bertel, Le Chevalier, 181 
Decatur's suit in Supreme Court, 317 
De Chaulne, Andre, early colonist, 135 
De Denonville, Marquis, Governor of 

Canada, 84 
De Faye, Jacque, early colonist, 135 
De Grig, Michel, early colonist, 135 
De Guyenne, Father Xavier, 97, 98 
De Hart, Robinson, captain of the "JS,t- 

na," 417 
De Kalb County, Outlaws in, 408 
De la Buissouifere, Alphonse, 181 
De Liette, Sieur, 180 



INDEX 



465 



DeL 

De Lignerie, Commander at Mackinac, 

145 
De Longlade, Charles, 161 
De Marie, of La Salle's company, 85 
Dement's, Major, Volunteers, 264 
De Montbrun, TimotMe, 290 
De Moulin, John, of Cahokia, 292 
Dempsey, John, 216, 218, 219 
De Noyelles, of Detroit, 147 
Des Moines River, Post opposite mouth 

of, 121, 174 
De Soto, on site of Fort Massac, 184 
Des Plaines River, Early name of, 107 
Detroit-Kaskaskia trail, 121, 122 
De Vaudreuil, Le Marquis, Governor of 

Louisiana, 181 
De Vemey, Father Julian, 97 
De Verville, Charles, 160 
De Ville, Father, 97 
De VilHers, Neyon, 147, 183 
De Vincennes, Sieur, 180 
Dewitt, Colonel A. B., 258 
Diamond Grove colony, Morgan Co., 

296 
"Diana," river steamboat, 420 
D'lberville, oflBcer in Louisiana, 87, 163 
Disasters to river steamboats, 421-424 
"Dispatch," Mississippi steamboat, 418 
" Di Vernon," river steamboat, 426 
Dixon, Trading-post near, 126; on mail 
route, 128; Dixon's Ferry on Rock 
River, 255, 297; fort at, 257; in 
Black Hawk's War, 259, 261 
Dodge, General, of Wisconsin, 263 
Dodge's Rangers, 265, 269 
Donaldson, Colonel, 378 
Donnes, 100 

Douay, Father, 46, 85, 92 
Douglas, Stephen A., 344, 436 
Douglass County, 301, 302 
D'Outrelean, Father, 97 
Doyle, John, early settler, 210, 398 
Doyle, Major Thomas, American com- 
mander at Fort Massac, 186 
Doza Creek, Fort on, 188 
Draper, D., early settler, 218 
Driscoll family outlawed, 409 
Du Bois, lead-miner, 166 



ELI 

Du Buisson, Commandant at Detroit, 

144 
" Dubuque," Disaster to the, 422, 423 
Dubuque, Iowa, Colony opposite, 162; 

mines near, 164 

— Julien, 166-168 
Duels, 333-344 

Du Gay, Le Picard, Hennepin's com- 
panion, 60, 91 

Du Lhut, Daniel Greysolon, 84, 91 

Dulignon, Jean, of La Salle's company, 
68 

Duncan, Governor, 432, 433 

Dunlap, , Governor Bond's second 

in duel, 334 

Dunleith, Lead mines near, 166, 168; 
railroad built at, 439 

Du Page County, Fort in, 190 

Duralde, Grant of land to, 166 

Durantaye, M. de la, 82-84, io7i i74> 
177 

Dutch Hill, St. Clair County, 347 

— Hollow, St. Clair Co., 347 
Dutton's Mound, 445 

East St. Louis, Relics of Mound- 
builders found in, 22 
" Eclipse," river steamboat, 419 
Eddy, Henry, Shawneetown, 443, 445 
Edgar County, Trail across, 122; Hop- 
kins's march across, 127; conference 
with Pontiac in, 288; settlers in, 296; 
outlaws in, 408 

— John, of Kaskaskia, 135, 292; Mrs. 
John Edgar, 374, 376, 377 

" Edward Bates," river steamer, 426 
Edwards County, 125, 346, 347 

— Creek, 350 

— Governor, 126, 190, 222, 241, 294, 
313, 314, 321, 381-383, 385 

Edwardsville, Madison Co., 126, 188, 
189, 223, 241, 293, 301, 395 

" Effa Afton," river steamboat, 426 

Effingham County, Trail across, 122; 
settlement in, 294 

Eletumo, Indian chief, 151 

Elizabeth, 167, 264, 345 

Elizabethtown, 447 



466 



INDEX 



ELK 

Elkhart Grove, Kickapoo village at, 
3,S^ 208 

Elkhom, on Kaskaskia-Detroit trail, 122 

Elkin, W. F., representative from San- 
gamon Co., 313 

Embarras River crossed by Kaskaskia- 
Detroit trail, 122; Clark's march 
across, 125, 199 

" Emerald Mound," 22 

Engages, 100 

English in Illinois country, 36, 38, 150, 
154, 158, 159, 181, 183, 196, 197, 240, 

251-253 
"Enterprise," fourth steamboat, 417 
Episcopal Church in Illinois country, 

398 
Equality, Block-house on site of, 188 
Ernst, Ferdinand, of Vandalia, 347 
"Expositor," Nauvoo, 274, 452" 
" Express," Illinois River boat, 427 

Fairfield, Clark passed near, 124 
"Falcon," river steamer, 427 
Farmer, Major Robert, 184 
Fayette County, 295; county offices in 

old Statehouse, 312 
Fayetteville, 242 

Fegeret, Rene, early colonist, 135 
Ferguson, Thomas, of Johnson Co., 304 
Ferrel, John, 216 
Fever (Galena) River, 162-164, 166- 

171, 297 
Fike, Nathan, second in duel, 335, 336 
Finley, John E., Presbyterian preacher, 

397 
First locomotive in Mississippi Valley, 
433; in Chicago, 438 

— school, 398 

— teacher in State, Doyle, 210 
Fisher, George, Randolph Co., 304, 305 
Fitheon, Captain, of the " Boreas," 426 
Flannery, James, 214 

Flat-boats, no 

" Flatheads," 412 

Fletcher, Job, senator from Sangamon 

Co., 313 
Floods on the Mississippi and Ohio 

Rivers, 428, 429 



FOS 

Flower, George, founder of Albion, Ed- 
wards Co., 346 

Ford County, Hopkins's march across, 
127 

— Governor, 136, 139, 244, 273, 276, 
277, 279, 298, 299, 310, 360-362, 379, 
382, 407, 435 

— outlaws, 446 

Forsyth, Major Thomas, 171 

Forsythe, Thomas, Indian Agent at 
Peoria, 238 

Forts, La Salle's, 55, 59, 60, 68; through- 
out Illinois country, 174-190; see be- 
low 

Fort Armstrong, 126, 188, 255, 257, 258 

— Beags, Will County, 196 

— Chartres, 32, 122, 138, 141, 146, 158, 
175, 178-184, 189, 333, 428, 449-451 

— Clark, 188, 244, 296, 454 

— Clark-Wabash trail, 127 

— Crawford, 266 

— Crbvecoeur, 59-62, 65, 71, 92, 175, 
454-456 

— Dearborn, 126, 174, 187, 229, 255; 
massacre, 38, 225-239 

— Edwards, 452 

— Gage, 187, 188, 194, 306, 451 

— Gray, Kane County, 190 

— Hamilton, Stephenson County, 190 

— Johnson, 452 

— Lamotte, near Vincennes, Ind., 242, 

— Massac, 96, 131, 161, 184-187, 333, 

447. 448 

— Miami, 57, 62, 67, 147, 151; see also 
St. Joseph River, Fort on 

— Paine, Du Page County, 190 

— Patrick Henry (Fort Sackville), 206 

— Russell, 126 

— Sackville, Vincennes, Ind., 197, 203- 
206 

— St. Louis (Starved Rock), 31, 32, 
68, 72, 81-87, "6, 129, 134, 13s, 175- 

178. 453 

— Waeyn Ind., French attack near, 
157 ; destination of Fort Dearborn gar- 
rison, 229-231 

Foster, , judge of Supreme Court, 

362 



INDEX 



467 



FOX 

Fox Indians, 29, 31, 34, 36, 37, 119, 144- 
148 

— River, Fox Nation's last stand on 
the, 146 

— River, bayou of Wabash, 346, 347 
Franklin County, Fort in, 188 
Franquelin's map of Illinois country, 

107, 144 

Frazer, Lieutenant, early English set- 
tler, 287 

French, Governor, 408, 435 

— in Illinois country: French explorers 
— Marquette, Joliet, La Salle, Tonty, 
the Friars, 41-101; voyageurs along 
the rivers, 102-114; French settle- 
ments, 129-143; French forts, 174- 
190; French colony, the Icarian, 35^- 
358 

Friars among Indians, 88-101, 103, 107 
Frontenac, Governor, 68, 75, loi 
Fry, Colonel Jacob, 258 
Fulton County, Howard's march across, 

127; settlers in, 296 
"jFulton," river steamer, 426 
Funk's Grove, McLean Co., 296 

Gage, General, Commander at Boston, 

159 
Gagnon, Father, Jesuit friar, 93 
Gaines, General, 257 
Galena, 128, 162, 168, 170, 171, 190, 

257' 263, 336 
Galena (Fever) River, 162-164, i66, 167, 

169-17 I 
Galesburg, Knox Co., Stations of under- 
ground railway in, 329; Knox College 

founded, 399 
Gallagher, , tried for death of 

Joseph Smith, 278 
Galland, Dr. Isaac, 271 
Gallatin County, Salt-production in, 24; 

settlements in, 222; organized, 294, 304 
Garrison, James, early immigrant, 209, 

215, 290 
"General Pike," 295, 418, 419 
Geneseo, Henry Co., 120, 345 
Germain family, settlers in St. Clair Co., 

347 



HAL 

Gibault, Father Pierre, Kaskaskia 

priest, 196 
Gillespie, Joseph, of Alton, 436 
Girty, , Indian Agent at Rock 

Island, 240 

— Mike, leader of Pottawattomies, 263 
Godfrey, Gilman & Company's ware- 
house, Lovejoy's press in, 331, 332 

Golconda, 447 

Gordon, Captain Henry, 165 

Goring's Fort, Kaskaskia River, 188 

Goshen settlements, Madison Co., 293 

Gould, Captain, of the "Knicker- 
bocker," 426 

of the "Shepherdess," 423, 425, 

427 

Grammar, John, of Johnson Co., 304- 
306 

Grand Tower, on the Mississippi, 403 

Gravier, Father James, or Jacques, 88, 
93, 94, 130 

Gray, Captain, of the " Gypsy," 426 

Grease Bay, 142 

Great Calumet River, 62 

" Great Comet of 1680," 65 

Great Meadows, French and Indian 
War, 183 

Green Plains, 279 

— River, Sauk trail followed, 1 20 
Greene County, 295, 347 
Greenup, William C, 306, 309 
Greenville, Fort near, 245 

" Griffin," The, 55, 57, 61, 62, 71 
Griswold, George, New York, 440 
GroseilHers mentioned lead mines, 162 
Grover, Wm. N., tried for death of Jos- 
eph Smith, 278 
Guymoneau, Father, 97 
Guyon, Michel, early colonist, 135 
" Gypsy," river steamer, 426 

Hacker, , member of legislature, 

337 
Hackleton, Major, 261 
Hageur, Francois, early colonist, 1 34 
Haille, Jesse, Methodist preacher, 395 
Halfpenny, , early school-teacher, 

398 



468 



INDEX 



HAL 

Hall, Captain, of the " Mechanic," 422 

— William, Two daughters of, 263 
Hamelin, of Cahokia, 155 
Hamilton County, 295 

— General, officer at Detroit, iq;, 200, 
203-205 

— W. S., son of Alexander Hamilton, 

315 

Hancock County, Trail across, 121; 
Howard's march across, 127; Mor- 
mon rising in, 271-286 

Hanson, Nicholas, of Pike Co., 325 

Hardin County, 345, 446 

— General, 279, 280 
Harmar, General, 291 
Harper's Magazine, 356 
Harrington, William, 219 

Harris, Captain Scribe, of the " Joe 

Daviess," 426 
Smith, of the " Pizarro," 426 

— Major Thomas L., 341, 342 
Harrison, Governor, 170, 222, 255, 323 
Harrisonville, 210 

Harrod, Captain William, with Clark, 

192 
Haven, Franklin, Boston, 440 
" Hawkeye State," river steamboat, 419 
Heald, Captain Nathan, 227, 229-232, 

236, 238; Mrs. Heald, 231, 235, 236, 

238 

Hedine, , of Bishop Hill colony, 348 

Helm, Captain, 197, 205 

— Lieutenant Linus T., 227, 236-238; 

Mrs. Helm, 227, 235-238 
Helms, Captain Leonard, with Clark, 

192 
Hempstead, in Zachary Taylor's com- 
mand, 252 
Henderson County, Settlement in, 296 
Hennepin, Father, 29, 56, 58, 60, 61, 88, 

91, 162, 455 
Hennepin, Fort at, 257 
Henry, Dr. A. G., 341, 342 
" Henry Bry," river steamboat, 424 

— County, Indians in, 30; crossed by 
Sauk trail, 120, communities in, 345 

— General, 265-269 

— Major James D., 258 



ILL 

Henry, with Captain Helm, at Vin- 

cennes, 196 
Henry ville, Lawrence Co., 125 
Herndon, A. G., senator from Sanga- 
mon Co.| 313 
Higgins, Tom, fight with Indians, 245- 

248; duel, 336 
Hill's Fort, Shoal Creek, 188 
Hillsboro, Mass-meeting at, 434 
Hillsborough, Lord, 159 
" Historical Transactions," 393 
" History of Early Illinois," 335 
"History of Illinois," 305 
"History of St. Louis," Scharf, 427 
Hobart, C, Schuyler Co., 296 
Holderman's Grove, Settlement at, 255 
Holmes, Lieutenant, 268 
Hope, Dr., in Lincoln-Shields affair, 

339; fought Dr. Price, 340 
Hopkins, General, 127, 240, 241 
Houston family killed by Indians, 242 
Howard's, General, expedition, 127, 

243-248, 454 
Howe, Henry, 371-373. 390-392 
Hubbard, Adolphus F., 383, 384 
Hubbard's trading-post, Iroquois Coun- 
ty, 190 
Huff, Mrs., and child killed near Little 
Village, 216 

— Mr., killed near Kciskaskia, 220 
Hull, Captain, early settler, 218 

— General, 229 

Hunault, of La Salle's company, 61, 63, 

64, 68 
Hurlbut, Rev., first abolition society in 

State met in his house, 330 

"ICARIA," Etienne Cabet, 357 

Icarian colony, Nauvoo, 347, 354-358 

" Icelander," ferry-boat, 424 

Illinois — 

Mound-builders in, 15-26; Indians in, 
27-87; La Salle in, 3i-ioi;Tonty in, 
70-87; friars in, 88-101; water-ways 
in and bordering the State, 102-114; 
trails made by Indians and early set- 
tlers, 115-128; French settlements in 
southern part of State, 129-143; Span- 



INDEX 



469 



ILL 

Illinois {Continued) 

ish invasion of, 150-162; lead mines, 
162-173; forts and trading-posts, 174- 
190; pioneers and border warfare, 207- 
222;in Warof 1812, 240-25 3; in Black 
Hawk's War, 254-270; Mormons in, 
271-286; American settlers, 287-302; 
location of capital and erection of 
Statehouse, 303-317; slavery struggle 
in, 318-332; duels fought in, 333-344; 
religious and industrial colonies, 345- 
358; border customs, 359-374; individ- 
uals of note, 374-387; religious devel- 
opment, 388-399; desperadoes, 400- 
414; served by river steamboats, 414- 
429; railroads in State, 430-442; 
places of historic interest, 443-457 

lUinois and Michigan Canal, 435, 438 

— Central Railroad, 437, 438 

— College, Jacksonville, 399 

" Illinois Emigrant," The, 445 

" Illinois Historical Transactions," 144 

" Illinois," Illinois River boat, 427 

— Indians (Illini), 29-33, 44> 45' 4^' 
58, 59, 63-65, 72-78, 81 

" Illinois," Mississippi River steamer, 
426 

— Rangers, in Rector's fight, 248-251 

— River, 19, 23, 45, 58, 81, 105, 107, 174, 
188, 297 

"Illinois Sketches," 150 

lUinoistown, 436 

IlKopohs (geographical centre), 313 

Immaculate Conception, Marquette's 
mission, 52, 93 

Indian Creek, Settlements along, 255 

Indians — 
Tribes occupying Illinois country, 
27-40; in time of La Salle and Tonty, 
41-201; the influence of the friars; 
88-101; trails crossing Illinois coun- 
try, 115-128; extermination of Fox 
Nation, 144-149; attacks on settlers, 
207-222, 240-253; attack on garrison 
of Fort Dearborn, 223-239; Black 
Hawk's War, 254-270 

Ingersoll, Robert G., 445 

" lone," river steamer, 427 



KAN 

" Irene," river steamer, 427 

Iroquois County, Trading-post in, 190 

— Indians, 30, 31, 37, 64-66, 72-77, 83, 
145 

Jackson County, Settlements in, 222 

— George E., 168 
Jacksonville, 313, 399 

James, Major, in Black Hawk's War, 
258 

" James Monroe," Mississippi steam- 
boat, 418 

Jansen (Johnson), Eric, founder of Bish- 
op Hill community, 347-353 

Jarrot vs. Jarrot, case in Illinois Su- 
preme Court, 320 

Jefferson County, Clark's march across, 
124 

" Jerks, The," 392 

Jesuits on the frontier, 88, 89, 93-96, 98- 
loi, 130-132, 135, 141, 178 

" J. M. White," river steamboat, 419 

Jo Daviess County crossed by Kellogg's 
trail, 127; lead-miners in, 142; fort in, 
190 

" Joe Daviess," river steamer, 426 

Johnson, see Jansen, Eric 

— County, Settlements in, 222; organ- 
ized, 294, 304 

— Colonel James, 170-172 

Joliet, Louis, 42-49, 106, 109, 121; his 
maps, 107 

— Sauk trail passed near, 120 

Jones, John Rice, duel with Shadrach 
Bond, 334, 379-381 

— WiUiam, of Madison Co., 304, 305 
Jones's Fort, Shoal Creek, 188, 293 
Jourdan settlement, Frankhn County, 

188 
Journey, or johnny, cake, 211 

— Lieutenant, 245, 246 
Journey's Fort, Aviston, 188 
Juchereau's expedition, 95, 185 
Judy, Samuel, 219, 304, 305 

— settlement, Madison Co., 293 

Kane, Colonel, 283, 284 

— County, fort, 190 



470 



INDEX 



KAN 

Kane, , moved State archives to 

Vandalia, 312 

— Elias Kent, 386 

Kaskaskia (old town on Kaskaskia 
River), 95, 129, 133, 135, 141, 146, 
157-160, 178, 187, 193-196, 304, 306, 
309, 311, 363, 428, 451, 452; (village 
of Illinois Indians on Illinois River) 
29, 48, 58, 96, 130-132; modern town 
of Kaskaskia, in Randolph Co., 94 

Detroit trail, 121, 122, 301 

— Indians, 29, 32, 33, 121, 130 
Keene's Station, 124 
Kekionga, on Wabash River, 157 
Kellogg, O. W., Stephenson Co., 297 

— " Old Man," at Kellogg's Grove, 255, 
257, 264, 297 

Kellogg's trail, 127, 172, 254, 297 
Kelly family, settlers on Spring Creek 

(Springfield), 314, 3 ^5 
Kendall County, Sauk trail through, 

120; site of Maramech, 144, 457; 

settlers in, 297 
Keokuk, Chief of the Sacs, 255, 270 
Kereben, Father, 97 
Kickapoo Creek, Early name of, 107; 

Indian village on, 35, 208 

— Indians, 30, 31, 34, 35, 76, 207, 208 
Kidd, Robert, early immigrant, 209, 290 
Kimball, Elder Heber, 453 

" King's Highway, The," St. Philippe, 

448 
Kingsbury, Lieutenant, 268 
Kinney, Andrew, 218 

— William, Baptist preacher, 360 
Kinzie, John, 227, 232, 238, 293 
Kirkpatrick, Thomas, Madison Co., 304 
Kirtland, Ohio, first Mormon settle- 
ment, 272 

Kishwaukee trail, 145 
Kiskwaukec River, 260 
" Knickerbocker," river steamer, 426 
Knox College, Galesburg, 399 

— County, Trail across, 121; trad- 
ing post in, 190; settlers in, 296; 
underground railway, 329; outlaws in, 
401 

Koshkonong Lake,5.Wis.,'"262, 265 



LEA 

La Balme, and his expedition, 157, 158 
La Barre, Governor of Canada, 68, 82, 

83. 177 

La Belle Rivifere (Ohio River), 25, 105, 
187, 445 

La Chapelle, 62, 71 

La Chesnaye, le Sieur, early colonist, 135 

Laclede Ligucst, Pierre, 183 

" Lady Jackson," lUinois River boat, 427 

La Fayette, General, accident on steam- 
boat, 422; entertained at Shawnee- 
town, 444; at Kaskaskia, 451 

Lafayette, Ind., 142 

La Forest, Francois de, 63, 67, 83-85, 

135. 177 
La Grange, Henry Co., 345 
Lainglois, founder of Prairie du Rocher, 

179 
Lake County, Indians in, 30, 55 

— of the lUinois (Lake Michigan), 49 
La Loup, Mohecan Indian, with La 

Salle, 57, 61, 63, 64 

Lambkins, Jephtha, convicted of kid- 
napping slaves, 322 

Land speculation, 368-370 

Lane, General J. H., 344 

Langwell, Tim, Colonel of militia, 368 

L'Anse de la Graisse, 142 

Laport, le Sieur, early colonist, 135 

La Potherie, 70 

Largilier, Father, 97 

La Salle, 255, 438 

— Cavelier de, 31, 54-70, 83, 84, loi, 
106, 174, 175, 177, 455 

— County, Indians in, 51; Sauk trail 
through, 120; settlements in, 297 

— Nicholas de, 68 

La Sallier's trading-post, on Rock 

River, 126, 190, 297 
Latter-Day Saints, see Mormons 
La Violette, of La Salle's company, 61, 

68 
Law, William, of Nauvoo, 275 
Lawlessness on the border, 400-413 
Lawrence County, 125, 295 
Lawrenceville, 125; site of, on first 

mail route, 127 
Lead-miners, 142, 162-173 



INDEX 



471 



LEA 
Leathers, T. P., of the "Natchez," 420 
Lebanon, Fort in vicinity of, 188; Mc- 

Kendree College founded, 399 
Le Blanc, 62, 71 
Le BouUenger, Father, 97 
Le Clerc, Father, 92 
Le Comte, Mme., 156, 374-376 
Lee and Ogle Counties, Trading-post 

on line between, 126; crossed by Kel- 

logg's trail, 127; fort in Lee County, 

190; settlers in, 297 

— house, Chicago, 227 
Legras, Colonel J. M. P., 291 
Le Guis, M., 164 

Leland Hotel, Springfield, 316 
Leman, James, early settler, 210 
Lemon, James, Monroe County, 299 
Lena, Indian attack near, 264 
Le Neuf, Marie Joseph, early colonist, 

135 
Le P^ (now Peoria), 135, 142, 152, 160, 

454 
L'Esp^rance, Tonty's servant, 71, 72 
Le Sueur, Commandant at Chequame- 

gon Bay, 162, 163 
Le Vasseur, Louis, early colonist, 134 

— Pierre, early colonist, 135 
Lewiston trail across Rock County, 172, 

297 
Lillard, Joseph, preacher, 394 
Lima, Mormon houses burned, 279 
Lincoln, 126 

— Abraham, 265, 313, 337-340, 368 
Lippsword, G., settler in Effingham 

Co., 294 
Little Calumet River, 62 

— Fort, Waukegan, 1 74 

— River, in Indiana, 142 

Littleton, Captain Mike, of the " Rosa- 
lie," 426 
Lively family killed by Indians, 242 

— Grove, near Fayetteville, 242 
Logan, John A., 445 

Loisel, Madelaine, 450 

Long, Major, in Black Hawk's War, 258 

"Long nine," from Sangamon Co., 313 

Looking-glass Prairie, 188 

Lord, Captain Hugh, 184 



McC 
Louisiana, Mo., 340 
"Louisiana," river steamboat, 419 
Louvigny, le Sieur, early colonist, 135 
Lovejoy, Elijah P., 330-332 
Ludlow, George W., New York, 440 

Macarty, Le Chevalier, 181, 183, 186 
MacCarty's company, with Clark, 205 
Macoupin County, Howard's march 

across, 127; settlement of Macoupin, 

294 
Madison County, t,t„ 293, 294, 304, 314 
Mail route. First in State, 127 
Maple Grove, 125 
Maps, Early, of Illinois country, 107; 

of Blanchard, 119 
Maramech, 144-149, 457 
Marest, Father, 36,94, 95,97, 130, 131 
Marion County, Trail across, 122 
Markee family, settlers in St. Clair Co., 

347 
Manjuette, Father, 29, 36, 43-53, 88-90, 

105, 106, 109, 121 
Marshall County crossed by Kellogg's 

trail, 127 

— John, Shawneetown, 443, 444 
Martin, Matheu, early settler, 134 
Mas, Jean, of La Salle's company, 68 
Mascoutin Indians, 36, 37 

Maso, , of La Salle's company, 80 

Mason, Edward G., 106, 134, 150, 151, 

154. 156, 158, 160, 161, 450, 455 
Massac County, 407, 410-412 

— Creek, 192 

Massacre at Ft. Dearborn, 38, 225-239 

Matagorda Bay, Texas, La Salle's col- 
ony, 69 

Mathis and the Regulators, 412 

Maxwell, Father, priest of St. Gene- 
vieve, Mo., 429 

Maybury, Site of, on first mail route, 127 

McCalister, Captain of the " lUinois,' ' 
426 

McCawley, , on Little Wabash, 293 

McClure, Samuel, 214 

McConnel, Murray, 433 

McCormick, Andrew, representative 
from Sangamon Co., 313 



472 



INDEX 



McC 
McCready, Rev. James, Presbyterian 

preacher, 398 
McDonough County, 296 
McKcndree College, 399 

— William, 395 

McLean County, Settlements in, 296 

— house, Shawneetown, 443 

— John, of Shawneetown, 386 

, attacked by Indians, 242 

McMahon family, 220, 221 

McNair, Colonel, Governor of Missouri, 

243 
McRobcrts, Samuel, 386, 387 
Meadow Indians, 36 
Meason, or Mason, , outlaw, 402, 

446 
" Mechanic," Disaster to the, 421 
Meeker, Dr. Moses, 172 
Meillet, Paulette, founder of Peoria, 156 
Membr6, Zenobe, 56, 67, 68, 71, 78, 79, 

88, 90-92 
Menard County, 296 

— Pierre, 135, 304, 305, 309, 371, 451 

— vs. Aspasia, case in Missouri Su- 
preme Court, 320 

Mendon, Wis., Earthworks near, 19 
Memet, Father, 88, 95-97, 131, 185, 447 
Merriman, Dr., Lincoln's second, 338; 

Butler's second, 339; challenged 

Whiteside, 340 
Methodist Church, 396 
Metropolis, 96, 123, 447 

— House, Metropolis City, 412 
Meucret, Gilles, of La Salle's company, 

68 
Meurin, Father, Jesuit friar, 93, 97, 98 
Miami Indians, 30, 33, 67; Piankishaw 

branch, 34-36 
Michel, Jean, of La Salle's company, 68 
Michigamies, 29, 32 
Michigan Lake, Early name of, 49, 107 
Michillimackinac, Marquette buried in 

chapel, S3 
Middleton's Fort, Kaskaskia River, 188 
Milan, Site of, 37, 120 
Miles, S. W., site of residence in Monroe 

County, 219 
Militia companies 366-368 



MUR 

Mille Lac, Wis., Hennepin held captive 
near, 91 

Miller, John S., 168 

Mills, Samuel J., Presbyterian preacher, 
398 

" Miner," Illinois River boat, 427 

Mississippi River, Marquette and Joliet 
e.xplored, 42-48; Hennepin explored, 
60; La Salle explored, 67, 68; a great 
water-way, 105; early names for, 107; 
figured in War of 1812, 240-253; 
in Black Hawk's War, 266-270; lead 
and trading boats on, 162-173; settle- 
ments on, 297; steamboats on, 414- 
429 

" Missouri Republican," The, 425 

Missouri River, mouth visited by Mar- 
quette, 46; early name of, 107; fort at 
mouth of, 188 

Money in the new country, 370, 371 

" Monks' Mound," 21 

Monroe County, Mound-builders in, 19; 
Indians in, 33; Renault's settlement 
in, 164; land granted, 179; New Design 
settled, 213; Indian attacks in, 216, 
219; sites of old settlements, 448 

Monroe House, St. Louis, 341 

"Montauk," river steamer, 427 

Montcharveaux, Elizabeth, 450 

Montgomery County, 295 

— Captain John, with Clark, 192 
Moore, Enoch, 395 

— James, early immigrant, 209, 290, 
302 

— John, killed by Indians, 218 
Moreau, Pierre (La Taupine), 50 
Morgan County, 296 
Mormons, 271-286 

Morris, Gouverneur, New York, 440 
Morrison, Mrs. Robert, 374, 377, 378 
Morristown, Henry Co., 345 
Mound-builders, 15-26 
Mount Carmel, Second mail route start- 
ed from, 128 
Mount Vernon, Ind., 124, 346 
Muir, Samuel C, 170 
Munson Township, Henry Co., 401 
I Murrell outlaws, 446 



INDEX 



473 



NAQ 

Naquigen, Indian chief, 151 
Natchez Indians, 80 

— and Nashville Trace, 402 
"Natchez," river steamboat, 420, 421 
Nat Hill's Fort, Doza Creek, 188 
Nauvoo, Hancock Co., 2712-86, 347, 

354-358. 406, 413. 452, 453 
" Nauvoo Legion," 273 
Neal, David A., Boston, 440 
Neapope, Black Hawk's lieutenant, 267 
Newark, Settlement at, 255 
New Chartres, 448 
New Design, Monroe County, 213, 217, 

290, 292, 448 
New Harmony, Ind., 346 
New Madrid, Mo., 142 
"New Orleans," 295, 416, 417 
New Orleans, La., 300 
Newsham, , Monroe County settler, 

347 
Nicholas, Captain, officer at Peoria, 243 
Niles, Mich., possible location of fort, 

151 
Northern Cross Road, 432, 433, 437 
Northwestern Territory, Division of, 222 

Ogden, Frank, captain of " Vesuvius," 

417 
Ogee, , operated ferry near Dixon, 

297 
Ogle, Benjamin, 215, 218 

— James, 215 

— Joseph, early settler, 210, 218, 393, 

394 

— and Lee Counties, Trading-post 
on line between, 126; crossed by Kel- 
logg's trail, 127; Ogle Co., 297; out- 
laws in, 408 

Oglesby, Joshua, of St. Clair Co., 304, 

305 
Ohio and Mississippi Company, 436 

— River (La Belle Riviere), 25, 46, 105, 
107, 187, 445 

" Old Cherokee Fort," 185 
Old Man's Creek, Ogle Co., 261 
Old Pecan, Kickapoo chief, 219, 220 
" Olitippa," boat propelled by horse- 
power, 427, 428 



PIN 

Olsen brothers, of Bishop Hill com- 
munity, 348, 349, 352 
O'Melvany, Samuel, 345 
O'Neal, Joe, negro kidnapper, 323 

— William, 245 
Oregon, Ogle Co., 408 

" Orion," Illinois River boat, 427 
Osnault, PhiHpes, early colonist, 135 
" Ottawa," Illinois River boat, 427 
Ottawa, Site of, 58; on mail route, 128; 

in Black Hawk's War, 262; settlers at, 

297; steamer built at, 427 
Ouatanon (now Lafayette), Ind., 142 
Ouilmette house, Chicago, 227 
Outagamie Indians, 56 

Pachot, Franfois, early colonist, 134 
Paget, builder of first water-mills, 132 
Parker, Samuel, Methodist preacher, 

395 
Parkersburg, Richland Co., 125 
Parkman, 28, 45, 51, 65, 69, 81, 86, loi 
Pearson, Judge, senator, 337 
Pecatonica River, 263 
Peck, Rev. Dr., founder anti-slavery 

societies, 326, 397 
Peesotum, Pottawattomie chief, 236 
Penicaut, concerning lead mines, 163 
Peoria, Lake and town, 31, 58, 71, 107, 

116, 142, 156, 160, 174, 188, 242, 243, 

257, 293, 296, 313,316, 317, 453' 455 

— tribe, 29, 32, 33, 94, 121, 135 
Perkins, Major, 261 

Perrigo, J. A., Adams Co., 296 

Perrot, Nicholas, 162, 163 

Perry County, Clark's march in, 124 

Peru, 255, 427 

Petit, Jean, early colonist, 135 

Phillips, pro-slavery candidate for 

governor, 1822, 325 
Physicians, Territorial regulation of, 308 
Piankishaws, see Miami Indians 
Piggot, James, early settler, 210 
Piggot's Fort, 290 
Pike County, 295 

— Lieutenant Zebulon, 185, 186 
Pimiteoui Lake, 453, 455 

Pinet, Father Francis, 93, 95, 130 



474 



INDEX 



PIQ 

Piqucnard, , of Icarian Colony, 356 

Pitman, Captain, 132, 182, 183 
"Pizarro," river steamer, 426 
Plant, George P., 433 

— George W., 433 

Planter's House, St. Louis, 340, 341 
Plum River Fort , Indian skirmish 

at, 265 
Point au Sable, Jean Baptiste, 161 
Poisset, early colonist, 135 
Pontiac, the Indian chief, 32 
Pope County, Clark's trail across, 123; 

outlaws in, 407, 410-412 
Pope, Judge, of U. S. Circuit Court, 323 

— Nathaniel, 308, 310 

Pope's Bluff, Kaskaskia River, 310 
Population of State, 212, 222, 292, 295, 

296, 316, 433 
Porter, John, early settler, 218, 219 
Posey, General, 265 
Post Wilkins, 447 
Pottawattomie Indians, 30, 31, 32, 34, 

38, 39, 228 
Pourre, Don Eugenio, 151, 154 
Powers, at Fort Massac, 185 
Prairie du Long Creek, Monroe Co., 347 

— du Pont, 141, 428 

— du Rocher, 133, 141, 179, 364, 449 
Prather, Mrs., of Tennessee, 323 
Pratt, O. C, of Jo Daviess Co., 341, 342 
Preachers, Border, 388-399 
Presbyterian Church, 397 

Price, Dr., duel with Dr. Hope, 340 

Princeton, Bureau Co., Stations of un- 
derground railway in, 329; entire 
church migrated to, 345 

Prophetstown, Whiteside Co., 258, 259, 
297 

Prudhomme, Pierre, of La Salle's com- 
pany, 68 

Pugh, Jonathan H., 315 

Pursley, Mrs., rescue of Higgins, 248 

QUINCY, 38, 142, 243, 281 

" Quincy," river steamer, 426 
Quintin Mound, 376 

Races between river steamboats,420,42i 



RIG 

Radisson mentioned mines, 162 

Radom, 124 

Railroads in State, 430-442 

Rale, Father, 93 

Ramsey, Captain, officer at Camp Rus- 
sell, 190 

Randolph County, 33, 122, 124, 222, 
290, 292, 304 

Randolph's Grove, McLane Co., 296 

Rantoul, Robert, Jr., Boston, 440 

" Rapids," river steamer, 426 

Rasles, Father, 30 

Read, Jacob, captain of the " Zebulon 
M. Pike," 418 

Reagan family killed near Alton, 244 

Recollet friars, 56, 88-90, 92, 93, 99, 
loi, 178 

Rector, Nelson, 252 

— Captain Stephen, 248-251 

— Thomas, duel on island opposite St. 
Louis, 335 

Red Oak Grove, Colony at, 349 
Reed, Colonel John, 184 
Reeves's Bluff, Kaskaskia River, 310 
"Regulators," Companies of citizens 

organized as, 406, 407, 409-413 
Renault, PhiHppe Franfois de, 72, 141, 

142, 164, 179, 318, 449 

— Town of, 448 

Retrospective views: procession passing 
down Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, 
111-114; over Indian trails, 11 7-1 19, 
122, 123 

Reynolds, Captain, of the " Rolla," 426 

— Governor, 136, 187, 244, 245, 257, 
258, 265, 300, 335, 343, 362-364, 384, 

385 

Ribourde, Gabriel de la, 56, 71, 75, 76, 
88, 90 

Richards, , Mormon leader, 277,278 

Richland County, 125 

Riddick, , killed by Indians, 215 

Rider, Captain Samuel, of the " Oli tip- 
pa," 427 

Ridgon, Joseph Smith's lieutenant, 272, 
278 

Riggs, Captain, 248-251 

— Hosea, 394 



INDEX 



475 



RIT 
Ritner, Lieutenant Joseph, 267 
Riverin, early colonist, 134 
Riviere k la Mine, 163 
" Robert E. Lee," river steamboat, 420, 

421 
Robert Owen communists, 346 
Rocheblave, M., 188, 195 
Rockford, 18 
Rock Island, city and island, 38, 116, 

126, 142, 248, 297, 413, 425 

— County, 255 

Rock River, 18, 105, 174, 253, 256-270, 

453 

Rogers, Lieutenant, with Clark, 198 

" RoUa," river steamer, 426 

Ronan, Ensign, 225, 227 

Roosevelt, Captain, of the " New Or- 
leans," 416, 417 

Root, of Bishop Hill colony, 352, 353 

" Rosalie," river steamer, 426 

Royal India Company in Illinois, 164 

" Ruined Castles, The," 45 

Rutherford, Larkin, early immigrant, 
209, 290 

Ryan, J., early settler, 218 

Sac Indians, 29, 31, 34, 36, 37, 119 
Sack, Andrew, pilot of the "New Or- 
leans," 416 
St. Ange de Belle Reve, 146-148, 166, 

179, i8o, 183-185 
St. Anne de Fort Chartres, 179, 450 
St. Castin, le Sieur, early colonist, 135 
St. Charles on mail route, 128 
St. Clair, Captain Benoist de, 181 

— County, Mound in, 22; Indians in, 
33; sheriff of, 156; organization of, 
212, 220, 291, 292, 304; anti-slavery 
societies in, 326; German settlers in, 
347; Steiner's settlement, 347 

Governor, 212, 290, 292 
— William, of Cahokia, 292 
St. Cosme describes painted rocks near 

Alton, 46 
" St. Croix," river steamer, 426 
"St. Gamo Kedentry," 314 
St. Genevieve, Mo., 142, 288, 429 
St. Ignace, Marquette buried at, 53 



SHA 

St. Joseph River, Early name of, 107 
. Fort on, 57, 66, 78, 147, 151, 

153-156 
St. Louis, Missouri, 150, 151, 160, 170, 

183, 288, 418, 424, 425, 427 

— and Keokuk Packet Company, 426 
"St. Peter," river steamer, 427 
St.Philippe,Monroe Co., 133, 141, 1 79,318 
Salem, on Kaskaskia-Detroit trail, 122; 

site of, on first mail route, 127; mass- 
meeting at, 434 
Salines, Illinois, 18, 445 
Salt, Use of, by aborigines, 17, 24 

— Creek crossed by Kaskaskia-De- 
troit trail, 122 

Sanford, John F. A., New York, 440 
" Sangamo," Meaning of Indian word, 

314; proposed as county seat, 315 
" Sangamo Journal," The, 337-339 
Sangamon County 295, 296, 313-316 
Sargeant, Winthrop, secretary to Gov. 

St. Clair, 292 
Sauk trail, 119, 120 
Saunders, John, 193 
Saussier, Lieutenant Jean B., 182 
Sauteur Indians, 37, 38 
Savannah, on the Mississippi, 297 
Scates, judge circuit court, 411 
Scharf's " History of St. Louis," 427 

— " Sketch Book," 425 
Schermerhom, J. F., Presbyterian 

preacher, 398 
Schuyler County, 296 ; 

— Robert, New York, 440 
Scott settlement, 296 

— General Winfield, 265, 270 
Scripps, John, Methodist preacher, 395 
Sebastian, at Fort Massac, 185 
Selden, , of Virginia, in Davis-Bis- 

sell dispute, 343 
Sellers, Colonel, 445 
Semen, James N., Sr., 218 
Seminary of Quebec priests, 95 
Senat, Father, 88, 97, 180 
Sharon, White Co., oldest Presbyterian 

church, 398 
Sharp, Thomas C, tried for death of 

Joseph Smith, 278 



476 



INDEX 



SHA 

Shaubena, Pottawattomie chief, 259 
Shaw, Captain John, 169 

— John B., 325 
Shawnee Indians, 33, 39 
Shawneetown, 39, 116, 128, 287, 293, 

301, 304, 305, 443-445 

— "Mercury," 323 
Shelbyville, 439 

" Shepherdess," Wreck of the, 423, 424 
Sheridan, Sauk trail passed near, 120 
Sheve, Henry M., captain of " Enter- 
prise," 417 

Shields, , challenged Lincoln to 

fight, 337-340 
Shoal Creek, Forts on, 188; Indians on, 

219 
Short, Jacob, of St. Clair Co., 304, 305, 

335. 3i(> 
Short's "Historical Transactions," 393 

— Rangers, 245 
Shreeve, Henry, 169 

Shreve, Captain, of the " Washington," 

418 
ShuU, Jesse W., 170, 190 
Shurtleff College, Upper Alton, 399 
Silver Creek, near Troy, Fort on, 188 
Sinclair, Lieutenant-Governor Patrick, 

166 
Sinsinawa Creek, Mound near, 20; In- 
dian skirmish at, 265 
Sioux tribe, 28 
" Sketch Book," Scharf, 425 

— of Government for Illinois," 159 
Skillet Fork, Clark crossed, 124; settlers 

on, 293 
Slaves, 141, 179, 318-332 
Smith, Hyrum, Mormon leader, 275- 

278- 453 

— James, early Baptist preacher, 216, 

217. 393 

— Joseph, founder of Mormonism, 
272-278, 453 

— Captain Orrin, of the " Fulton," 

427 
Smoker, Captain, of the "Dubuque," 

422 
Snyder, Dr. J. F., 19, 23-25 
South Bend, Ind., 57, 151, 153 



SWA 
South Chicago on Calumet River, 155 

— Edward Creek, Colony on, 349 

— Ottawa, Settlement at, 255; fort at, 

257 
Southern Cross Road, 432 
"Southerner," river steamboat, 419 
Spanish Mines, The, 166 
Spoon River, 243, 244 
Spring Bay, Indian village on site of, 

30; destroyed by Edwards, War of 

1812, 127 
Springfield, 126, 313-317 
"Springfield City Ordinances," 315 
"Springfield," Illinois River boat, 427 
Sprinkle, Michael, 445 

Stanley, , of Cambridge, 353 

Stark County, Trail across, 121; settlers 

in, 296 
Starved Rock 31-33, 68, 72, 81, 116, 

129, 175-178 
Steamboats on Ohio and Mississippi, 

415-429 

Steintr, Bernard, St. Clair County set- 
tler, 347 

Stephenson, Colonel Benjamin, 308 

— Captain, 263 

— County, 127, 190, 297 
Steward, John F., 144, 145, 147, 148 
Stewart, Dr., wounded in Rector's fight, 

251 

Stillman, Major, 259-262, 265 

Stillman's Run (Old Man's Creek), 261 

Stirling, Captain Thomas, of Fort Pitt, 
184 

Stone, Dan, representative from San- 
gamon Co., 313 

" Stone-grave people," 19, 20, 24 

Stout, William, 245 

Strawn, Livingston Co., 127 

Stribling, William, 396 

Stuart, Alonzo C, duel at Belleville, 

335. 336 

Studevant , counterfeiter, 404, 405 

Sturgis, Jonathan, New York, 440 
Superior Council of Quebec, Records of 

134 
Surgeon, The, 50, 63, 64, 68 
"Swallow" river steamer, 426 



INDEX 



477 



SWA 
Swayne, Dr., of Hicco, Tenn., 324 
Sycamore Creek, Ogle Co., 259 

Taensas Indians, Village of the, 79 
Talbot. Benjamin, Gallatin Co., 304 

— Rev., Presbyterian minister, 350 
Tamaroa Indians, 29, 31-33, 77, 131 
Tamisier, , of La Salle's company, 

63. 64 
Taylor, Major Zachary, 252, 253, 258 

, Mormon leader, 277, 278 

Tayon, Don Carlos, 151 

Tecumseh, 170, 185, 244 

" Tecumseh," river steamboat, 419 

Teissier, of La Salle's company, 85 

"Temple" mound-builders, 21 

Terre Haute-Fort Clark trail, 301 

Thomas, Abe, negro kidnapper, 323, 324 

— Henry, on West Bureau Creek. 255 

— Jesse B., 309, 385 

— Colonel John, in Black Hawk's War, 
258, 306 

— Lieutenant, report on lead mines, 
172 

Thompson, Samuel, Methodist preach- 
er, 395 

— Colonel Samuel M., 258 
Threlfall, , Monroe County settler, 

347 
Throckmorton, Captain John, 268, 426 
Thwaites, Dr. Reuben Gold, 162, 165- 

167, 194, 255 
Thwing, Dr., 163 

" Time and Tide," river steamer, 427 
Todd, Colonel John, 288, 290, 291 

— Thomas, 218 

Toledo, Wabash, and Western Rail- 
road, see Northern Cross Road 

Tontine insurance, 70 

Tonty, Henri de, 59-87, 135, 175-178 

Toulon, Stark Co., Indian village on 
site of, 30 

Trails, Indian, 27, 115-128 

Trammel, Philip, of Gallatin Co., 304, 

305 
Treat's Island, 62 
Trinity River, La Salle murdered on, 

69 



WAB 

Troy, Fort near, 188 

Turkey Hill, near Belleville, 293 

Turner, James, 215 

Turney, James, attorney-general, 365, 

366 
Twain, Mark, 445 
Two Rivers, 243 
" Turtle Mound," Rockford, 18 

Underground railway, 328, 329 
Union County, Settlements in, 222 
Upper Alton, Shurtleff College founded, 

399 
Utica meadows, 48, 51, 58, 63, 77, 90 

453 
" Utility," Illinois River boat, 427 

Vallet, , of Icarian colony, 356 

Vallis, John, 215 

Vandalia, 296, 310-313, 347 

Van Houten, Captain, of the " Adven- 
ture," 423 

Van Metre, A. P., 170 

— Voorhees, Surgeon at Fort Dearborn, 
227, 235 

Vermilion County, Trail across, 122; 
Hopkins's march across, 127; settlers 
in, 296 

— River, Indian warfare on, 73 

"Vesuvius," third steamboat, 417 

Vigo, Colonel Francis, 197 

Vincennes (Ind.), 124, 142, 157, 
197-206, 291, 292 

"Virginia," first steamboat on upper 
Mississippi, 415 

Vivier. Father, 97, 142 

Von Gauvain, , of Icarian colony, 

356 

Voras, William, tried for death of Jo- 
seph Smith, 278 

Voris, , debater in question of State 

capital, 317 

Wabansee, Indian chief, at Ft. Dear- 
born massacre, 236 

Wabash River, Early names of, 107; 
settlements on the upper, 142; Clark 
on, 198-203 



478 



INDEX 



WAD 

Waddell, David, 210, 215 

Walker, Jesse, 394, 395 

Wannock, Edwards Co., 346 

Ward, James, Methodist preacher, 395 

Warley, Joseph, early settler, 210 

Warren County, Trail across, 121 

— Major, stationed at Nauvoo, 280 
"Warrior," supply steamer, 268, 269, 

426 
Warsaw, Hancock Co., 277, 278, 354, 

452 
Washington County, trail across, 122; 

Clark's march through, 124 

— Grove, Ogle Co., 410 

" Washington," Mississippi steamboat, 
418 

Water-ways in" and leading to Illinois, 
102-114 

Watrin, Father, 97 

Wau-bee-nee-mah, Indian chief, at Ft. 
Dearborn massacre, 237 

Waukegan, Fort on site of, 174 

Wayne, General Anthony, at Fort Mas- 
sac, 186; victory at Maumee, 292 

— County, Clark's march across , 124 
Weamiamies, see Miami Indians 
Webb, James Watson, his journey from 

Fort Dearborn to Fort Armstrong, 

125, 126 
Wells, Captain William , 225, 231-236 
Wesley City, 175, 456 
West Bureau Creek, Settlement on, 255; 

fort, 257 
Wethersfield, Henry Co., Stations of 

underground railway in, 329; founded 

by commune, 345; land speculation, 

.S69 
" White Cloud," river steamboat, 425 
White Indians, tribal markings, 37 

— James, killed by Indians, 214 

— Liberty, of Chicago, 227 

— Manuel, 416 

— Rock Grove, Ogle Co., 409 
Whitehead, Robert, early settler, 210 
Whiteside family, 218-221, 244, 252, 

253 

— Brig.-Gen. Samuel, 258-262, 265, 

Zi^y 340, 342 



YAL 

Whiteside's Station, Monroe County, 

220 
Wilburn (opposite Peru), Fort at, 257, 

265 
Wilkins, Lieutenant-Colonel John, 184 
Wilkinson, James, 185, 186 
Will County, Fort in, 190; settlers in, 

297 
Williams, Captain, with Clark, 206 

— Levi, tried for death of Joseph Smith, 
278 

Williamson County, Clark's trail across, 

123; Clark in, 193 
Willing, James, 161 
"Willing," The, 198 
Wills, John, tried for the death of Joseph 

Smith, 278 
Wilson, Alexander, of Gallatin Co., 304 

305 

— Joseph M., House of, 456 

— Robert L., 313 

Winnebago County, Mound-builders in, 

18; Indians in 39; outlaws in 408 
" Winnebago," Illinois River boat, 427 
Winnebago Indians, 29, 34, 39 
' ' Winnebago, ' ' Mississippi River 

steamer, 426 
Winnemeg, or Catfish, Indian chief, 229, 

236 
Winstandy, Thomas, Monroe County - 

settler, 347 
Winter, , settler on Apple River, 

255 
Wisconsin Heights, Battle of, 266 
"Wisconsin," Illinois River boat, 427 
Wisconsin River, one of the historic 

water-ways, 105; Fox Nation located 

on, 145 
Wood River settlements near Alton, 

244, 292 
Worley, James, 216 
Worthen, Mr., improved trail, 123 
Worthington, Captain, 206 
Wright, Newton E., negro kidnapper, 

323. 324 
Wyandots, 228 

" Yale Band of Seven," 399 



INDEX 



YEL 
Yellow Bank settlement, Henderson 

County, 296 
You, Pierre, of La Salle's company, 63, 

64,68 
Young, Benjamin, 394 

— Brigham, 279, 453 

— Joseph, House of, 453 



Young, 
242 



479 

ZEN 
killed near Carlyle 



"Zebulon M. Pike," sixth boat, 417, 

418 
Zenobe, Pere, of La Salle's company, 



IOWA: 

The First Free State in the Louisiana 
Purchase 

FROM ITS DISCOVERY TO THE ADMISSION OF THE STATE 
INTO THE UNION, 1673-1846 

By WILLIAM SALTER 

T^R. SALTER is generally recognized as the highest authority on 
■^-^ the history and development of the State of Iowa. It is 
doubtful whether any man now living has been so closely identi- 
fied with its affairs for so long a period (about sixty years), and 
certainly few are better known in his State. His life of James W. 
Grimes is recognized by historians as standard for the ante-bellum 
and Civil War period, and this new book will be immediately accepted 
by those who desire reliable information and carefully sifted facts. 
Although admirably condensed, the book contains a vast amount of 
information presented in a manner that is both scholarly and interest- 
ing, and constitutes, in fact, the first complete and accurate account 
of that portion of the Louisiana Purchase territory which afterwards 
became the State of Iowa. 



THE TABLE OF CONTENTS 



I. 

II. 
III. 
IV. 

V. 

VI. 



VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 



Discovery. 1673. 

The Aborigines. 

Under France. 1682-1770. 

Under Spain. 1770-1804. 

In the Louisiana Purchase. 

1 803- 1 804. 
In the District of Louisiana, 

under the Government of 

Indiana Territory. 1804- 

1805. 
In the Territory of Louisiana. 

1805-1812. 
In the Territory of Missouri. 

1812-1821. 
In Unorganized Territory of 

the United States. 1821- 

1834. 



X. 



XI. 



XII. 



XIII. 



In the Territory of Michigan. 
1 834- 1 836. 

In the Territory of Wiscon- 
sin. 1836-1838. 

In the Territory of Iowa. 
1 838- 1 846. 

The Organization of the 
Stale and Admission into 
the Union. 1846. 

Appendix. 

1. The Name " Iowa " 

2. Notes on Some of the Illus- 
trations. 

Index. 



With 24 Illustrations. Price, I1.20 Net. 



A. C. McCLURG & CO., Publishers 



THE ILLINI 

A STORY OF THE PRAIRIES 

By CLARK E. CARR 

Fourth Edition 

IN this remarkable volume Colonel Carr presents in narrative 
form a reminiscent and historical account of his life in Illinois 
from 1850 to the Civil war, and of the many famous men and 
important events he has been connected with. Living in Illinois for 
over a half-century, and during all that period indentified more or less 
intimately with public affairs and public men, especially those of the 
Republican party, Colonel Carr's studies have been made and his 
material collected chiefly at first-hand, and his accounts have the 
veracity of an eye-witness. His character-sketches of the famous 
sons of Illinois are most illuminating, and must be taken as 
authoritative, even though some new interpretations are given of their 
character and motives. A thread of romance running through the 
work adds greatly to its charm — its skilfully constructed web forming 
the background of a vivid drama, of which the gieat State of Illinois 
is the stage on which the heroic figures of her greater sons appear as 
leading characters. Lincoln, Grant, Douglas, Logan, Oglesby, 
Yates, Trumbull, Palmer, and a score of others, all figure in a work 
which is at once a romance, a drama, and the epic of a mighty State. 



"No American can rise from a perusal of this book, without a vastly in- 
creased respect, based upon authentic knowledge, for the people of Illinois; 
and to the Illinoisan it will come almost as a gospel of enlightenment and 
encouragement to interest himself in the past history and present fame of so 
majestic a commonwealth. " — The Dial. 

" Illinois of a half century ago is pictured vividly by one who played his 
part in the drama of the time, and at this distance can see things in their true 
proportions. The book is to be commended to those who are interested in the 
development of our national life, and especially those who do not realize how 
great a part in determining the course of history the ' Illini' have taken. The 
volume is one of absorbing interest, and the text is enhanced by the numerous 
portrait illustrations." — Boston Transcript. 

"The book is that of a man who has lived a full life and taken its buffets, 
and rewards with equal thanks. His aspect toward life is courteous and 
liberal. Rich in experience, reflective by nature, with the excellent pride of 
that strongest of all men, the virtuous and successful provincial, the writer of 
'The Illini ' has been able to invest it with a fine and wholesome flavor, rich 
as good wine, nourishing as ripe nuts. And there are thousands of Colonel 
Carr's contemporaries who will appreciate to the full this fine flavor." — 
Chicago Tribune. 

With 20 full-page portraits, $2.00 net; half-leather, $5.00 net. 

A. C. McCLURG & CO. Publishers 



THE HISTORY OF 

NEGRO SERVITUDE 
IN ILLINOIS 

AND OF THE SLAVERY AGITATION IN 
THAT STATE, 1719-1864 

By N. DWIGHT HARRIS, Ph.D. 

Professor of History at Lawrence University 

IN 1 7 19 Philip Francis Renault, a Frenchman, brought 500 slaves 
from San Domingo to a spot on the Mississippi about 50 miles 

below St. Louis, and 25 years later sold them to the inhabitants 
of the district. Thus was slavery inaugurated in what was then 
known as the "Illinois country"; and there, in spite of much opposi- 
tion, it maintained its footing until 1845, when a decision of the 
Supreme Court of the State showed that slavery could not exist here. 
Nevertheless, under the "voluntary" indenture system many negroes 
were retained under bondage until old age and hardships had unfitted 
them for labor. Emancipation within the State was completed by 
the Supreme Court in 1864, and in the following year the Legisla- 
ture wiped from the Statute books the infamous "Black Laws." 

How the slavery problem was argued and fought over; how the 
fugitive slave laws were defeated by means of the "Underground 
Railroad"; how the best men of the country came to see that the 
question was one of justice and national honor, and how it inspired the 
eloquence of Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln in their famous 
campaign — all this is clearly and forcibly set forth in this book. 

In the execution of his difficult task Dr. Harris has expended 
much time and patient research. He has drawn his information, as 
far as possible, from original sources, to all of which he refers in his 
footnotes and appendixes. 

SOME OPINIONS OF THE PRESS 



"A masterly treatise upon the 
subject of negro slavery in the 
State of Illinois is this book of Prof. 
Harris'. An excellent bibliography 
wrhich accompanies the treatise adds 
to its historical value. The result 
of the careful analysis and pains- 
taking research which Dr. Harris 
devoted to this subject is the accur- 
acy of detail which will place it in 
the first rank of reference books." 

— Chicago Journal. 



"A work of uncommon value and 
interest. It compresses into a med- 
ium sized volume the information 
that one could find only in the sep- 
arate volumes of a considerable li- 
brary . . , The work is one of the best 
written, cleverest, most accurate we 
have seen; it cannot fail to please 
every student or man of affairs who 
has occasion to consult its pages." 
— &alt Lake Tribune, 



With 8 Illustrations. Price, $1.50 Net. 

A. C. McCLURG & CO., Publishers. 



HOW GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 
WON THE NORTHWEST 

AND OTHER ESSAYS IN WESTERN HISTORY 
By REUBEN GOLD THWAITES 

THE majority of the eight essays contained in the volume were 
first delivered as lectures, and weie later accorded magazine 
publication. For the present publication they have been radically 
revised and brought down to date, and comprise an exceptionally 
interesting collection of papers, covering a wide range of topics under 
the one general head. The titles of the essays are as follows: 
"How George Rogers Clark Won the Northwest," "The Division 
of the Northwest into States," The Black Hawk War," "The 
Story of the Mackinac," "The Story of La Pointe," "A Day on 
Braddock'sRoad, " "Early Lead Mining on the Upper Mississippi," 
"The Draper Manuscripts." 

ON THE STORIED OHIO 

An Historical Pilgrimage of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, from 
Redstone to Cairo 

By REUBEN GOLD THWAITES 

THIS trip was undertaken by Mr. Thwaites some years ago, with 
the idea of gathering local color for his studies of Western history. 
The Ohio River was an important factor in the development of the 
West. He, therefore, wished to know intimately the great water- 
way in its warious phases, and there seemed no better way than 
to make the pilgrimage as nearly as possible in the manner of the 
pioneer canoeist or flat-boatman himself. The voyage is desbribed 
with much charm and humor, and with a constant realization of the 
historical traditions on every side. For the better understanding of 
these references, the author has added a brief sketch of the settlement 
of the Ohio Valley. A selected list of journals of previous travelers 
has also been included. 

DOWN HISTORIC WATERWAYS 

Six hundred miles of canoeing upon Illinois and Wisconsin Rivers 
By REUBEN GOLD THWAITES 

Mr. Thwaites' book is not only a charming account of a summer canoe 
trip, but an excellent guide for any one who is contemplating a similar "in- 
land voyage." The course followed by the canoeist is described with a practical 
accuracy that makes it of great assistance, but in an engaging style that will 
appeal strongly to every lover of outdoor life. "It is a book to be read to get 
the spirit of the woods and rivers and streams and lakes." — Worcester Spy. 

Uniform bindings, with many illustrations. Each, Si. 20 net. 

A. C. McCLURG & CO. Publishers 



